Archived Information

12-62 Annual Report 2000

Master Teachers

There are master teachers throughout the Commonwealth. They are honored by their schools as Teachers of the Year, are recognized by their peers as mentors, and are remembered by their students. Until last year, there was no state program to recognize and reward these teachers. The Chapter 260 legislation created one route to Master Teacher Status, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and the Department is developing other routes of equal excellence. Our goal is to create a corps of 1000 Master Teachers by 2003.

When the legislation was signed into law in August 1998 there were 7 NBPTS Certified teachers in Massachusetts. In November 1998 an additional 15 teachers received notification from the National Board that they had achieved certification. In November 1999, 53 teachers achieved certification from NBPTS, bringing the state total up to 75. To assist qualified applicants, NBPTS awarded $137,000 to the Department to provide partial scholarships to the applicants. There are currently 197 teachers in the pipeline who will be submitting their applications next year.

As the legislation states, Master Teachers who are mentors in their school/district will be awarded $5000/year for up to ten years (the length of a NBPTS certificate) upon successful completion of their certificate, for a total of $50,000. In April 1999, nineteen Master Teachers were awarded the first $5,000 payments at a ceremony at the State House. Governor Cellucci, Lieutenant Governor Swift, Speaker of the House Finneran and Senate President Birmingham were all in attendance to give the teachers their checks.

The Department has proposed two additional routes to Master Teacher Status as part of the Concept Paper on Teacher Licensure. In the first route, teachers who receive national recognition for excellence in teaching would automatically become Master Teachers. These programs would include Teacher of the Year, Milken Educators, and Christa McCauliffe Fellows and others. In the second route, teachers would participate in a state-level performance review. The teachers would first complete a master's degree in the content area and then submit a compilation of their professional achievements to a peer review panel.

Once an individual has achieved master teacher status, he or she can mentor a new teacher as part of the required professional certification process or assume master teacher responsibilities as designated by a local school district. Districts are encouraged to utilize master teachers in leadership positions which provide the master teacher with expanded responsibilities with increased compensation, while allowing the teachers to continue to teach.

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