West Genesee Middle School fifth-grade teacher Kelli Barbuto has recently achieved National Board certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in Literacy: Reading-Language Arts/Early And Middle Childhood.

To earn certification from the NBPTS, successful candidates spend between 200 and 400 hours, over a year or more, in an extensive series of performance-based assessments that include teaching portfolios, students’ work samples, videotapes and a thorough analysis of the candidate’s classroom teaching and student learning.

Teachers also complete a series of written exercises that probe the depth of their subject-matter knowledge, as well as their understanding of how to teach those subjects to their students.

Founded 34 years ago, NBPTS is an independent non-profit, non-partisan, and non-governmental organization dedicated to advancing the quality of teaching and learning.