Alan Sorensen Havre Daily News asorensen@havredailynews.com
Havre’s first National Board Certified teacher was rewarded for her efforts Friday when state Superintendent of Schools Linda McCulloch presented her a check for $3,000 in a ceremony in Helena. Vicky Michels, a fourth-grade teacher at Sunnyside Intermediate School, completed her National Board Certification course while earning her master’s degree in education at Montanan State University- Northern. Of the two, she said the National Board Certification was the more rewarding. “Personally, I think (the National Board) was the best professional development I’ve ever completed,” she said. “All of it kind of came together for me.” Michels said teachers are given three years to complete the National Board Certification, but can complete it in less than a year if they don’t have to repeat any of the steps. National Board Certification is granted to teachers who successfully complete a series of portfolio and assessment exercises over a six- to nine-month period, according to a press release from the state Office of P u b l i c I n s t r u c t i o n . Simply completing the certificat i o n p r o c e s s requires teachers to demonstrate a high level of expertise through written and video evidence, and successfully becomi n g Na t i o n a l Board certified represents the highest achievement an American teacher can earn. Michels, who has been a teacher for 27 years with 22 years in Havre Public Schools, said the National Boards can be expensive to take, easily exceeding $3,000 is teachers have to repeat steps. The original cost is more than $2,000 and the cost of repeating part of the program costs about $375. She added that the state offers a scholarship that covers about half of the initial cost. The teacher contract negotiated with the Havre districts three years ago includes an incentive for teachers to pass the National Boards, she said. Board certification is good for 10 years, and the teacher contract calls for a certified teacher to receive an additional $2,000 per year for those 10 years. McCulloch said Tuesday that her office has paid 60 teachers the $3,000 award since the program was introduced about seven years ago, but she didn’t have the exact number of Montana teachers who have achieved the certification. "These are true professionals who spend months of their lives to achieve this high recognition," McCulloch said in the news release. "Such leadership and dedication is the key to providing all Montana children with an unparalleled system of education.” Fewer than 50 percent of National Board Certification candidates actually achieve the certification status on their first attempt, indicative of the difficulty of the assessments. Candidates who do not become certified can resubmit portions of the assessments to eventually gain certification. Funding for these stipends was approved by the 2001 Legislature. House Bill 42 was introduced by Rep. Gay Ann Masolo from Townsend and provides for $3,000 stipends for teachers who achieve National Board Certification. More than 30 other states passed similar legislation, some of which provide National Board Certified teachers with salary enhancements of over $10,000 per year. Michels explained the certification process in a little more detail. “It entails reading and studying of the standards,” she said. “As you’re looking at what’s best for the students, working with the parents, using assessments to drive your instruction, you make choices about what you’re going to teach.” “You study the latest research and do the things you can to put the children first.” Michels said the process requires the teacher to submit actual classroom experiences. “You use your classroom, write about it, reflect on how you’d change and in two of those (portfolios), you submit a 15-minute video tape, completely unedited in real time, to show as proof that you’re doing what you’re writing about,” she said. She said candidates also have to travel to Helena at least six times to take half-hour computer assessments. “Those are questions that are in your subject area one half hour to write on each one,” Michels said. “That proves your content knowledge.” Michels said she began the process in 2005 and had to wait until December 2006 to get her results. But she said the wait was well worth it. “It was a wonderful ceremony,” she said. “It’s a pretty big step. We have a couple other teachers in Havre who are in the process and that’s exciting.”
