With teacher shortage and teacher diversity challenges impacting schools across the nation, National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) are leading the field in efforts to ensure that all students have access to accomplished and diverse teachers.
Launched in 2018 with generous funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Leading, Empowering, and Advocating for the Profession (LEAP) project has engaged more than 200 teachers as change agents in solving locally-pressing teacher workforce challenges. 171 have backgrounds in Early Childhood.
Through boot camps, Capitol Hill visits, virtual and in-person skills-building and collaboration sessions, and the creation of a cross-state virtual community, participants learned and applied critical skills for shaping their profession for the better. According to the project evaluation [insert hyperlink], participants’ skills and experience with stakeholder engagement and advocacy doubled (or nearly so) from 3.0 and 3.7 respectively (on a 10-point scale) at the start of the project to 6.0 after one year of participation.
Board-certified teachers from Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina led initiatives focused across the educator career continuum to bring the National Board’s Five Core Propositions and standards into efforts to recruit, retain, and develop teachers. Projects ranged from new teacher mentoring to school-based cohorts to awareness-raising, advocacy, and the development of a new pre-service and in-service curriculum. In each case, Board-certified teachers engaged stakeholders and analyzed and communicated data to generate support for and shape their initiatives. In addition, staff developed new resources to:
- Support NBCTs in advocating for federal grants to be spent on Board-certification and related activities
- Provide guidance for school leaders to develop talent through Board Certification
- Inspire other NBCTs to advocate to address teacher shortages, teacher diversity, and related workforce challenges
- LEAP Evaluation
Visit https://www.nbpts.org/practice-policy/advocacy-resources/ to see resources and gain inspiration for how you can play a role in leading, empowering and advocating for the profession.
