In this article, Travis J. Bristol and Joy Esboldt examine the supports and constraints teachers at one midsized urban school serving predominately Latinx students encountered during school-based professional development aligned with becoming a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT). Research has established that Black and Latinx students have less access to NBCTs when compared to White students, yet few studies offer insight into the organizational conditions that influence urban school teachers’ capacity to earn certification. Drawing on two years of ethnographic observations, interviews, and artifact analysis, this study finds that district and school-based factors constrained teachers’ capacity to earn National Board Certification, reporting that participants believed there was a misalignment between the district’s vision for instructional improvement, which focused on Direct Instruction, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
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Travis J. Bristol (
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5234-3481) is an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. His research is situated at the intersection of teacher policy and practice and is centered on three interrelated foci: national, state, and local policies that enable and constrain teacher workplace experiences and retention; district and school-based educator professional learning communities; and race and gender in schools. His research has appeared in such peer-reviewed journals as
Urban Education,
American Educational Research Journal,
Journal of Teacher Education, and
Teachers College Record.
Joy Esboldt (
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0129-4795) is a doctoral candidate in the Critical Studies of Race, Class, and Gender program at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on schooling and teacher learning as they intersect with gender and racial politics. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Illinois. Prior to her graduate studies, Esboldt was a high school teacher and a racial equity coach.