Up: Teaching Residency Program Information

NPTP Definitions and Acronyms

Licensing and Certification
Two distinct procedures. Typically states are responsible for licensing and professional bodies grant certification. Until the development of the NBPTS (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) in 1987, there was no professional group offering a recognized advanced certification for teachers.

BOT: The Minnesota Board of Teaching
An eleven member Board appointed by the Governor and charged by statute with the licensing of teachers in the state.* The Board includes six classroom teachers, 1 school administrator, 1 teacher educator, and 3 public members, two of whom must be current or former local school board members.

*The State Board of Education is responsible for licensing school administrators.

NCATE: National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
NCATE, the sponsor of The New Professional Teacher Project, accredits teacher preparation institutions. In the forefront of the move towards increasingly rigorous, performance-related standards for the teaching profession, its governance system includes 30 constituency groups - teachers, teacher educators, subject matter specialists and policy-makers.

NBPTS: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
Established in 1987 as the first professional body in teaching to set standards for the advanced certification of licensed teachers, the privately incorporated NBPTS awarded its first certificates in 1995. The NBPTS's intention is to provide a national voluntary certification system, leading to better student achievement, and higher pay and greater autonomy for Board Certified teachers. Certification is seen as complementing - not replacing - state licensing. As of this year, several teachers in Minnesota have become Board Certified. Carnegie Corporation helped to establish the organization.

INTASC: Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium
INTASC is a project sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers. The Consortium was formed in 1987 so that states could share information on such topics as model standards for licensing teachers, state policies consistent with the work of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, performance assessment, and legal, technical, and cost issues related to professionalization. INTASC has been funded primarily through the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the U.S. Department of Education's office of research and now includes some 4O states.

Up: Teaching Residency Program Information