The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), commonly referred to as the National Board, was founded in 1987 for the purpose of establishing standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. The creation of the NBPTS was prompted by calls for education reform in the 1980s in such reports as A Nation at Risk (1983) and A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century (1986). The NBPTS began with a 63-member board of directors, two thirds of whom were teachers, who were charged with establishing a voluntary process by which teachers could become certified as accomplished through demonstrating that they met an ambitious set of national standards. The rationale adopted by the NBPTS is similar to that for other professions, ...