2006 Orientation - news release - photo album Candidate Preparation Resources: Content Standards Supporting Mathematics Content Standards Supporting Reading Skills & Language Arts Content Standards Supporting Science Content Standards Supporting Social Studies & History Comment on the Candidate Preparation Resources
	Links: Kansas National Board Certified Teachers

National Teacher Certification

National Board Certification is a way for the teaching profession to recognize highly accomplished teaching practice. A certificate awarded by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) attests that a teacher has been judged by his or her peers as one who meets high and rigorous professional standards. He or she has demonstrated the ability, in a variety of settings, to make sound professional judgments about students' best interests and to act effectively on those judgments.

The Great Plains Center's program, which first began during National Board field testing in 1992-95, continues to grow each year, and to provide improved and expanded assistance, resources, and leadership to recruit and support Kansas teachers through National Board Certification professional development. The program is offered at no cost to Kansas teachers because it is supported by both Board of Regents program enhancement funds and supplemental private funding.

Most recent growth activities of the program include:

• The Great Plains Center received in August 2006, for the eighth year in a row, supplemental funding from State Farm Insurance Company. The funding for 2006 was $6,000. This enabled the Center to expand the Academy's offerings for first-time candidates.
• The center is providing assistance and resources to National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) in Unified School Districts like Olathe, Wichita, Hays, and Blue Valley, as they work to develop building or district-wide networks to support the growth of NBCTs in their own districts.
• The center is establishing satellite programs of support, including personal assistance and professional resources to Education Service Centers like Southwest Plains in Sublette, and Greenbush in southeast Kansas to build both regional consortium networks to recruit and support candidates, and regional "libraries" of National Board Certification professional materials.
• The center is providing leadership to other colleges and universities in Kansas by sharing, upon request, its collection of developed and collected resource materials, and by linking these institutions with area NBCTs who can assist them in building and structuring support for National Board Certification at their respective campuses.
• For additional information, contact:

  Roger Caswell, Director
  Great Plains Center for National Teacher Certification
  620-341-5372
  rcaswell@emporia.edu