Teachers seek higher reward for board certification

FAYETTEVILLE — Some teachers asked the School Board to increase pay for those who have achieved National Board certification.

The School District gives National Board certified teachers a $2,500 bonus. Certification is good for five years; teachers may receive another $2,500 each time they renew their certification.

The state also provides an annual stipend, though a recent change to the distribution formula — intended to attract more highly trained teachers to high-poverty schools — meant reduced stipends to most board-certified teachers in Fayetteville and similar districts.

The teachers once received $5,000, the new state formula cut it to $2,500 for anyone who started the certification process after 2017. The stipend is higher for teachers in high-poverty schools, but Fayetteville has only one such school.

The result is fewer Fayetteville teachers are pursuing board certification because of the decline in compensation, said Meme Hagers, a music teacher at Vandergriff Elementary School who earned certification in 2007.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was established in 1987 to define and recognize accomplished teaching. The standards are created by teachers, for teachers. National Board certification is a voluntary process to certify teachers against those standards, according to the nonprofit organization’s website.

The process consists of four components. Candidates must submit all four components within the first three years of their candidacy. The cost is $475 per component. The state will reimburse candidates for those costs.

Hagers said the board certification process completely changed her as a teacher.

“I began to reflect. I began to look deeper and dig deeper into what my kids need,” she said.

The district’s Personnel Policy Committee for teachers has recommended another $2,500 be paid to each of the 82 board-certified teachers at a one-time cost of $205,000.

The committee also recommends each newly board certified teacher receive an annual stipend of $1,000 — a total of $5,000 over the course of the five years certification is active. District officials estimate eight teachers would become board-certified each year.

Superintendent John L Colbert said he couldn’t endorse the committee’s recommendation until administrators examine it in the context of the district’s entire budget.

Earning National Board certification is a lot of work but is very much worth it, Hagers said. She cited a Harvard University study that showed students of board certified teachers in Los Angeles gained roughly the equivalent of two months of additional instruction in math and one month in English language arts.

Andrew Young, an English teacher at Woodland Junior High School, said he wouldn’t have received Fayetteville’s teacher of the year award for 2018 if not for what he has learned by going through the process of certification.

“The way I think about things and plan things is very different now,” Young said.

Megan Hurley, a School Board member, expressed some skepticism the certification really improves teaching abilities. She said she wasn’t certain the program deserves the kind of reward teachers are requesting.

“What’s challenging for me about this question is what distinguishes National Board certification from all other proofs of teacher excellence,” Hurley said.

Board member Nika Waitsman said she generally likes the idea of rewarding teachers for obtaining additional training. She added, however, the school board has made it a priority to give the district’s 800 teachers raises as often as possible, and increasing the stipend for a small set of teachers would make that more difficult.

As for Northwest Arkansas’ other large school districts, Bentonville gives board certified teachers an annual $3,000 stipend. Rogers pays $1,000 per year. Gentry, a much smaller district, pays $2,000 a year.

Springdale does not provide a stipend, though the state’s system is set up to favor teachers in districts like Springdale. Act 937 of 2017 shifted the biggest bonuses to board certified teachers who work in high-poverty schools in high-poverty districts or high-poverty charter schools. The state gives those teachers a $10,000 stipend each year for up to 10 years.

A high-poverty school or school district is defined as one in which at least 70 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Springdale’s poverty rate is just over 70 percent. Fayetteville’s rate is 37 percent.

Springdale has 100 teachers going through the board certification process, Hagers said.