More National Board

Over at Dehavilland Blog they’re all over me for my hopelessly status-quo tendencies in ed policy. They think I should have called for the axe for the Nat’l Board for Professional Teaching Standards rather than urging them to get it together on the achievement issue. I take the larger point, we shouldn’t just keep things that don’t work around because it’s easier — and that does happen too often in education, and public policy more generally as well. But, in the case of the Nat’l Board, I like the idea of some advanced certifications in education because I’d like to see schools have more flexibility about hiring, be held accountable for those decisions, and have some signals and cues to help them make decisions. National Board Certification could be just such a cue (along with some others and it would be nice if many (most?) Nat’l Board supporters weren’t so hostile to other ideas, too). So that’s why I’m in the mend it don’t end it camp here.