The six articles of this special section explore various aspects of the certification of evaluators, departing from a task force report of the American Evaluation Association that examined the potential of certifying evaluators and a survey of members of the American Evaluation Association. Articles present positions for and against evaluator…

Purpose: We examine whether the Nursing Home Reform Act (NHRA) improved nursing home staffing and quality. Design and Methods: Data from 5,092 nursing homes were linked across the 1987 Medicare/Medicaid Automated Certification System and the 1993 Online Survey, Certification and Reporting system. A dummy-year model was used to examine the effects…

The purpose of this study was to examine the professional impact of the National Board Certification from the perspective of teachers who have achieved National Board Certification, which is granted through the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. This phenomenological study involved interviews with 10 National Board Certified…

The capability of organizations to operate on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework is reliant on ITIL process measurements. Appropriate ITIL process measurements help ensure desired outcomes, enable corrective actions to take place prior to process failure, and direct process activities towards continuous improvement.…

This study examines the impact of Washington state's incentives for teachers to attain National Board Certification and to work in challenging schools. Using surveys and secondary analyses of state databases, we examine the workforce both prior to and following recent changes in the incentive program. The study considers the nature of National…

This monograph appears midway through the development of a book on the future of teaching, scheduled for publication in the fall of 2010. The book is a team effort, undertaken by 12 accomplished educators from across the United States, who have agreed to systematically study and speculate about public education and the teaching profession in the…

National Board Certification is a voluntary assessment program designed to improve student learning by recognizing and rewarding highly accomplished teachers and improving overall teaching effectiveness. While state licensing systems set basic requirements to teach in each state, National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) successfully demonstrate…

Educational expectations and demands on the principal have changed markedly over the past few decades, so an updated set of standards or competencies is needed to effectively evaluate school principals today. Increasingly, many states require that administrators qualify for the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) certification.…

The author begins with an extended account of the manner in which popular accounts treat the topic of mentoring or coaching. This treatment is contrasted with the problems of coaching described in other articles in this issue, especially in connection to the National Board portfolio assessment. The distinction between "mediated" and "unmediated"…

This article presents speeches describing John McCain's position on education posted on the McCain campaign's official web site, www.johnmccain.com. These include McCain's speech to LaRaza convention, July 14; McCain's speech to the NAACP, July 16; McCain's speech at the Greater Columbus (Ohio) Convention Center, May 15; and McCain's speech at…

In February 2007, the Association for Challenge Course Technology (ACCT) approved new standards for the certification of Challenge Course Practitioners. These standards will be used by accredited professional vendor members of ACCT in the training and certification of practitioners and may also be used as a reference by others. These new standards…

This study sought to: (1) examine the impact of national certification, state registration, counselor education accreditation, and state certification on the hiring practices of local school systems; (2) assess the knowledge that school personnel officers have of various counseling credentials; (3) assess the knowledge and attitudes of prospective…

The document reports on a 1979 national survey on special education certification practices for educators of the handicapped and gifted. The survey focused on such issues as categorical versus generic certification; special education requirements for regular educators; competency based certification; and certification for paraprofessionals,…

This paper is a consideration of what would happen to teacher education programs if they were controlled exclusively by school districts, arts and science faculty, state department personnel, or classroom teachers themselves. The pressures that are exerted by each of these constituencies are discussed in terms of their potential effects on both…

The Georgia Department of Education initiated a statewide effort to establish standards and procedures for certification of educational personnel based on competency demonstration. A project was commissioned to develop a performance-based system for the certification of school counselors. This article presents the premises, procedures, and…