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.