BJHS National Board Certified Faculty

BJHS National Board Faculty Front Row, l to r: Mrs. Kelly-Schierholz, Mrs. Hutton, Mrs. Riley Back Row, l to r: Mrs. Plato, Mr. Wetzel, Mrs. Cinkovich, Mr. Fillmore, Mr. Willey

This fall 7th grade language arts teacher Mrs. Hutton joined 7 other BJHS faculty in the successful completion of her National Board Certification. These teachers are among 7,289 primary and secondary school teachers nationwide to complete the rigorous national certification process that credentials successful candidates as Master Teachers. They join a group of only 1,555 other NBCTs in the state of Illinois. District 87 has the 7th highest number of Board Certified teachers of any district in Illinois. To put this into perspective, the six school districts in Illinois with more Nationally Certified teachers employ an average of 1,050 teachers. District 87 employs just 351 teachers.

As part of the National Board Certification^® process, the teachers compiled and submitted a teaching portfolio which included videotapes of classroom teaching, lesson plans, student work samples and reflective written commentaries. They also had to complete an assessment involving a series of written exercises designed around challenging teacher issues such as curriculum design, student assessment and content knowledge.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, founded in 1987, is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan and non-governmental organization dedicated to raising the level of teaching excellence in classrooms throughout America. To learn more about National Board Certification for teachers, visit their website: http://www.nbpts.org/about/index.cfm.