For the past two decades, Americans have recognized the growing challenges facing public education and have considered a host of ideas, programs and strategies to enhance teaching and learning in schools. Educators have worked to strengthen their knowledge and skills as part of this national effort to make higher levels of achievement possible for all students.

Within this context of reform, the Carnegie Task Force on Teachers as a Profession released its 1986 report, A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the Twenty-First Century, which called for teachers and other stakeholders to join together to create the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Its mission: To advance the quality of teaching and learning by maintaining high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do, providing a national voluntary system certifying teachers who meet these standards, and advocating related education reforms to integrate national board certification into American education and capitalize on the expertise of national board-certified teachers.

National board certification is a professional undertaking that requires the mastery and integration of both content and pedagogical knowledge. It also requires that teachers possess a repertoire of instructional strategies to help all students meet high standards.

Educators have been integrally involved in the board's work from the beginning. Teachers compose the majority of the board's membership, thereby having a real voice in NBPTS policy. Teachers also serve on standards and assessment-level committees; they score assessments and work on all aspects of NBPTS products and services. Today, approximately 50,000 teachers have achieved national board certification—the teaching profession's highest credential.

The AFT was among the founding organizations that established the national board in 1987. Across the country, leaders and staff of AFT affiliates are working to support teachers who choose to pursue national board certification. They are also collaborating with other stakeholders to secure legislation, regulations and contract language that facilitate teacher access to, and maximize benefits from, the certification process.