Integrating student standardized
and formative assessments with the National
Board for Professional Teaching Standards’
Teacher Development Process, by Joan
Chikos Auchter, offers an interesting history
of the traditional National Board
Certification process and a new program
(2006) called NBPTS Take One! that offers
schools the opportunity for teachers to do a
school improvement project based on a lite
version of NBPTS standards. Auchter
works hard to illuminate how NBPTS’ core
propositions for teachers often require the
use of formative assessment to enable
teachers to ‘recognize individual differences
in their students and adjust their practice
accordingly’ (Core 1), to ‘regularly assess
student progress’ (Core 3), and to
incorporate education research and
participate in learning communities (my
connection). These elements reflect best
practices in using assessments to improve
teachers’ own abilities to address student
learning needs.
