Residency: Can it transform teaching the way it did medicine? 

In March 2014, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, brought together 18 teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and 18 members of Congress who are board-certified physicians. Convened at the U.S. Capitol, the purpose of the meeting was to have doctors and teachers compare notes on how their respective professions prepare practitioners. 

The conversation was illuminating. The physicians spoke about how board certification in medicine is the norm not the exception, even though it is voluntary as it is in teaching where only 3% of teachers are board certified. Education has not built a similar pipeline that leads teachers in this direction. More significantly, teaching has not embraced residency, which the physicians described as being as important to their profession as medical school and, in some ways, even more so. They expressed surprise and concern that nothing similar exists in teaching. “When I finished my M.D. degree,” Andrew Harris (R-Md.), a board-certified anesthesiologist, recalled, “I had a lot of book learning and a little bit of experience, but to become a real expert and to gain that expertise, you go through residency and board certification.”