Dive Brief:
- This week, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards will meet to decide whether or not it should continue the work it started more than four years ago to create a national certification program for school leaders.
- The principal certification program, which was created to parallel the 25-year-old teacher certification program, currently has more than 100 school leaders in its pilot.
- The school leaders in the pilot program — who have already invested 18 months of their time for the preliminary run — have been in limbo for months as they wait to find out the fate of the program.
Dive Insight:
As of right now, the National Board has not made any comment on the fate of the program, or explained why it is considering scrapping it. However, according to one of the principals taking part in the pilot program, roughly 1,600 school leaders were selected but only 120 remain due to how intense it has been.
Arguments for and against the program can go in many different directions. If teachers are expected to be board-certified, it is fair to say principals — the actual leaders of the schools — should fall under the same jurisdiction.