Conclusion 6-2: States that offer financial incentives for attempting and achieving board certification are likely to have more teachers that apply and succeed in the program.

In addition, we note that the existing data about the teachers who have gone through the board-certification process are scant. For example, it is not currently possible to determine what teachers have done after completing the process, what happened to teachers who did not pass the assessment, how many board-certified teachers are currently employed, or where board-certified teachers currently work. We encourage the NBPTS to establish data collection systems that allow for investigation of these issues. Thus we recommend:

Recommendation 6-1: The NBPTS should implement and maintain a database of information about applicants and their career paths. This effort should include routine, annual data collection as well as specially designed studies. The data collected should provide information about what teachers have done after going through the certification process, what has happened to teachers who did not pass the assessment, how many board-certified teachers are currently employed, where board-certified teachers currently work, and what jobs they do.