National Board Certification FAQs

Should I take EDCI 5515 or EDCI 5959 credits?

EDCI 5515 credits should be taken if you want to use the National Board Certification toward your Master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction. EDCI 5959 credits are for continuing education only and will NOT be accepted on your Program of Study for the Master's degree in C&I. 

Will there be classes offered to help me proceed through the National Board Certification process?

Yes, a series of seminars and workshops are offered through the Wyoming National Board Certification Initiative each semester. Information about these seminars and workshops is posted and updated on the Wyoming NBC website. Graduate level Curriculum and Instruction credit is available for these seminars (courses listed as EDCI 5515). These courses are designed to support teachers as they grow as professionals and simultaneously proceed through the Board Certification process and the UW Master’s program.  

Where will the classes be offered?

The classes are offered around the state of Wyoming to allow participation across the state. Dates and locations for upcoming seminars and workshops can be found on the Wyoming NBC website. Participants enroll in the courses through UW Outreach Credit Programs (toll free phone number: 1-800-448-7801). Up to 9 total credit hours of the seminars can be taken by enrolled graduate students. Up to 9 total seminar/workshop credit hours may be applied as electives in the Curriculum and Instruction Master’s program.  

Who will teach these classes?

The seminars are taught by Barbara Maguire, a Nationally Board Certified teacher and expert in the NBC process.

How many times can I take the NBC class?

Graduate students/National Board Candidates can enroll in the seminars as many times as necessary/desired. For those seeking graduate degrees, up to 9 credits can be applied to the Curriculum and Instruction Master’s degree program as elective hours dependent upon the student’s committee approval.

What about tuition?

Students will pay regular graduate tuition for the seminar classes. View the current UW fee schedule. 

Will I need to complete a Thesis or Plan B paper to finish my C&I degree? No, the NBC Portfolios will be accepted in Lieu of a Plan B Paper for teachers pursuing NBC Certification and a UW Master’s degree simultaneously. This acceptance is dependent upon committee approval (not acceptance by the National Board). An agreement to utilize this procedure and maintain portfolio confidentiality has been reached between UW and the NBPTS (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards). The NBC portfolio must be submitted and defended (in a meeting with the student’s graduate committee) prior to initial submission to the NBPTS.  The committee’s portfolio copies will be destroyed after the defense.

Note: The Rubric for Assessment of the presentation  is provided below.

If I am already a National Board Certified teacher, can I apply my NBC work retroactively to a graduate degree?

No, the program is designed for those working on National Board Certification and a C&I Master’s degree simultaneously.

How do I apply for a UW Curriculum and Instruction Graduate Program?

 The graduate application and other information can be found here.

What if I have Additional Questions?

 If you have additional questions, please contact the UW Department of Curriculum and Instruction (curriculum@uwyo.edu; 307-766-6371).

Portfolio & Presentation 

Committee members will evaluate the following areas and will determine if the student/NBC candidate accomplished each of these aims/activities at a level sufficient to warrant the substitution of the NBC portfolio and presentation for the Plan B requirement. S/U (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory) will be assigned  for each area, and an overall evaluation of “S” must be achieved for portfolio to serve in lieu of the Plan B paper.  

______ Overall evaluation of the portfolio and presentation as suitable substitutes for Plan B

paper/project and defense

Presentation of NBC Portfolio to Master’s Committee:

______Student provides a brief overview of National Board Certification process and portfolio

______Student describes process of working on the portfolio (including connections to C&I courses

taken, time commitment, exams and data analysis, and reflections)

______ Student presents at least one explicit connection between the portfolio documentation and

his/her C&I Master’s Degree coursework (e.g. test strategy learned in literacy specific

course was used to evaluate student work included in NBC portfolio), and explains ways processes informed each other

_____ Student describes challenges, pleasures, difficulties associated with the NBC process

_____Student summarizes learning derived from portfolio process and completion

Visit our Course Schedule page to view projected MA core and emphasis course offerings

Corewell Health surgeon appointed to national certification board

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Corewell Health surgeon was appointed chair of the American Board of Surgery (ABS)!

The healthcare system tells us Dr. M. Ashraf Mansour will serve on the Board for the 2023–24 term.

Dr. Mansour is Corewell Health’s chief vascular surgeon.

The ABS certifies surgeons and other medical certified in the U.S.

Dr. Mansour first served on the ABS in 2016, according to Corewell Health. He served on the Board of Directors until 2019, after which he became a director of ABS’s governing board.

“It is a great honor to serve as the American Board of Surgery chair this year,” says Dr. Mansour. “I am very proud of all the accomplishments of the Board since I joined in 2016, from governance redesign to leading by example on diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

We’re told surgeons must have five or more years of residency training under their belts after completing medical school and meet ABS’s training and examination prerequisites to be certified by the ABS.

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Puerto Rico Board Denies EPA Request to Dump Dredge Waste in Ocean

For Immediate Release, October 7, 2022

Contact:

Federico Cintrón Moscoso, El Puente, (787) 529-5802, fcintronmoscoso@elpuente.usPedro Saadé Lloréns, University of Puerto Rico Law Clinic, (787) 397-9993, pedrosaade5@gmail.comCatherine Kilduff, Center for Biological Diversity, (202) 780-8862, ckilduff@biologicaldiversity.org

Puerto Rico Board Denies EPA Request to Dump Dredge Waste in Ocean

Shipping Channel Plan for LNG Facility Harms Communities, Corals, Marine Life

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico— The Puerto Rico Planning Board has formally objected to the federal government’s plan to dispose of millions of cubic yards of dredge waste in five ocean sites around Puerto Rico without further environmental studies.

The board did not find the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to be sufficient for preventing harm to coral reefs, which play a role in preserving fisheries and protecting communities and infrastructure from severe storms.

The EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had applied to the board for a “certification of consistency,” which would have confirmed that their plan was in line with the Puerto Rico Coastal Management Program. The federal plan would allow the ocean dumping of waste created by dredging the San Juan Bay shipping channel, which would supply large ships access to a new liquified natural gas terminal.

“This request to dispose of the contaminated material from the San Juan Bay around Puerto Rico, without consulting with the communities that have opposed the dredging, is contrary to the vision expressed by the EPA to pay more attention to environmental justice communities,” said Federico Cintrón Moscoso, director of the organization El Puente-Enlace Latino de Acción Climática. “Before this plan goes any further, they demand that all activities related to this dredging comply with an environmental impact statement in which the communities and affected groups have a chance to participate.”

The San Juan Bay Dredging Project involves dredging and disposing of more than 2 million cubic yards of sediment. Dumping this waste could contaminate ocean ecosystems with heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium and mercury, and other harmful chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls.

Community and conservation groups — El Puente, CORALations and the Center for Biological Diversity — filed a federal lawsuit in August over the Army Corps’ plans to expand the shipping channel. The lawsuit challenges the Corps’ failure to prepare an environmental impact statement analyzing the effects gigantic tankers and the new LNG terminal will have on local communities, corals and wildlife. The suit also contests the Corps’ plan to dispose of some dredged material in the Condado Lagoon nature reserve, which is important habitat for manatees.

“Puerto Rico’s Planning Board deserves kudos for denying the EPA’s dirty dumping plan,” said Catherine Kilduff, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Dumping waste onto corals in the ocean doubles the destruction from dredging projects. The San Juan dredging project saddles Puerto Rico with a dependence on fossil fuels and harm to communities and eco-tourism, and ocean disposal magnifies that damage.”

Sediment plumes leaking from barges carrying dredge waste often smother corals and other bottom-dwelling wildlife. Reefs along the north coast of San Juan near the proposed dumping sites provide habitat for seven species of Endangered Species Act-listed corals, including elkhorn, staghorn and pillar corals. Some of these areas are federally designated critical habitat for elkhorn and staghorn corals as well as proposed critical habitat for the other species.

Coral reefs — which are extremely biodiverse — also support several other marine species, providing habitat for more than 25% of all life in the ocean.

El Puente de Williamsburg, Inc. – Enlace Latino de Acción Climática is a group concerned about the impacts of climate change in the archipelago of Puerto Rico.

CORALations is an award-winning organization founded in Puerto Rico in 1995 to work with Caribbean communities to protect and restore their coral reefs.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.