LOCKING OURSELVES IN - NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR THE TEACHING PROFESSION

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has begun work in the U.S.A. to create a nationwide program to recognize and certify good teachers and to improve the status of the profession. Its most pressing goal is the development of standards and assessment procedures for the 1993 implementation of a voluntary program of ''advanced professional certification'' for elementary and secondary school teachers. This article examines the specific discourse of the National Board in the areas of professionalization, standards, assessment, and certification. It also explores the possible general effects and meanings of the Board's efforts and some of the responses that can be made to them by educators. In spite of any intensions to the contrary, it is argued that the Board's program will ultimately institute more controls on teachers, further distance ''professional'' from laypersons, and inhibit collaborative efforts among school people in their local contexts.