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Get Certified and Take Your Teaching Career to the Next Level
National Board Certification is available in 25 certificate areas representing 16 different disciplines and four developmental levels and is applicable to most teachers in U.S. public schools. Recognizing the many demands on teachers’ time, the certification process is designed to be flexible, efficient and affordable.
To become a Board-certified teacher, eligible candidates must demonstrate advanced knowledge, skills, and practice in their individual certificate area by completing four components: three portfolio entries and a computer-based assessment.
Throughout the certification process, teachers will be able to apply the National Board Standards to their classroom practice and connect with other teachers pursuing certification.
Are You Eligible?
To be eligible to achieve National Board Certification, teachers must meet the following education, employment, and licensure requirements. If you are a candidate in World Languages, you must also meet the language proficiency requirement.
| Eligibility Requirement | Timeline for Meeting Requirement |
| Candidates must possess a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. (Candidates for the Career and Technical Education certificate are required to hold a bachelor’s degree only if their state required one for their current license.) | Before a candidate registers and purchases their first component for National Board Certification. |
| Candidates must hold a valid state teaching license or meet the licensure requirements established by their state. | Before a candidate registers and purchases their first component for National Board Certification.
Note: A candidate must also hold a valid license for each of the three years they verify towards the employment requirement. |
| Candidates must have successfully completed three years of teaching at one or more early childhood, elementary, middle, or secondary schools to achieve Board certification. (Applicants for ECYA/School Counseling must have successfully completed three years serving as a school counselor.) | No later than June 30 of a candidate’s third year of candidacy. *This requirement must be met for a candidate to be eligible to achieve certification.
When a candidate meets the score requirements and all eligibility requirements, including the teaching employment requirement (if not already met), the candidate will achieve National Board certification. |
| World Language candidates: ACTFL language proficiency requirement. | No later than June 30 of the assessment cycle in which a candidate completes initial testing on all four National Board components. When a candidate meets the ACTFL and score requirements and the teaching employment requirement (if not already met), the candidate will achieve National Board certification. |
Review Standards and Certificate Areas
The standards for all Board certification areas are founded on the Five Core Propositions that represent a professional consensus on the unique aspects of practice that distinguish accomplished teachers. Candidates should view the available certificate areas and then select a certificate area associated with their classroom specialty.
The Four Components of the Certification Process
The certification process is designed to collect standards-based evidence of accomplished practice. In all 25 certificate areas, candidates are required to complete an assessment that includes four components. The content knowledge component is a computer-based assessment taken at a testing center; the other three are portfolio-based and submitted through an electronic portfolio system.
To access component instructions for your certificate area, see the candidate resources page.
Timeline
Our timeline makes it easy to get certified. The four components can be submitted in any order. Candidates can complete from one to four components a year.
Candidates must submit all four components within the first three years of their candidacy. While it is possible to complete the process in as little as one year, there is a five-year window to achieve certification.
Note: Although candidates are provided with five years to complete the certification process, all purchased components must be completed during the assessment cycle in which they are purchased. Read Guide to National Board Certification for important dates and deadlines for completing the certification process.
Scoring
Scoring of components occurs each summer and component scores are released by the end of that year. Board-certified teachers or teaching professionals are responsible for the scoring in each certificate area; they are trained extensively.
The scoring system is an indication of the degree to which assessors are able to locate clear, consistent and convincing evidence that a candidate has met the National Board Standards in the specific certificate field.
Measurement experts rate National Board assessor reliability among the highest reported for such a complex performance assessment, which is a direct result of the focused and rigorous training National Board assessors undergo.
Of all teachers receiving a certification decision since 2017, the year the National Board revised its assessment, 70% earned the National Board Certified Teacher designation. The cumulative certification rate includes teachers who received a certification decision after receiving scores on all four of the assessment’s components.
Read the Scoring Guide: Understanding Your Scores for important information about assessors, interpreting your scores, your score report, evaluating your performance, retakes, and more.
Taking Action and Becoming a Candidate
Take time to review the Guide to National Board Certification, paying close attention to important dates, deadlines, and policies. When you’re ready to get certified, create an account in the National Board Candidate Management System (NBCMS) to register and purchase components. For each assessment cycle you plan to take components, a $75 nonrefundable and nontransferable registration fee is required and must be paid before purchasing a component. Components must be selected and purchased separately prior to the registration deadline for each assessment cycle.
Purchase only the components you plan to complete during the assessment cycle for which you are registered.
The initial cost for each of the four components is $475 (the total cost for the initial attempt of all four components is $1,900). Retake attempts require an additional fee.
In our ongoing efforts to streamline the certification process, we’ve moved to a paperless delivery system. Standards and other assessment documents are available on our resources page. Be sure to check our website and your email regularly for updates and information. Everything you’ll ever need to know about how to get certified can be found throughout this website.
