Throughout the past two decades, Boston Public Schools has seen strong, steady improvement, recently demonstrated through student gains on NAEP's Trial Urban District Assessment in math and recognized through the award of the 2006 Broad Prize for Urban Education. Teacher leaders have played an important role in Boston's improvement. As team leaders, mentors, and members of instructional leadership teams, for example, teacher leaders have helped to strengthen teaching by leading collaborative teams, supporting colleagues' professional learning, and facilitating data-driven decision making. The Boston Teacher Leadership Certificate capitalizes on the expertise of Boston's experienced teacher leaders to bolster the system's capacity to accelerate learning for all students. Since effective teaching is essential for students' academic growth, it only makes sense that effective teachers would be important assets to improving student learning in a school or district. Yet effective teachers are not necessarily effective in formal teacher leadership roles. Teacher leadership roles, which teachers and administrators design to contribute in a deliberate way to improved teaching and learning, require a range of knowledge and skills beyond those required for effective teaching. The Boston Teacher Leadership Certificate program is unique from other programs that support teachers to build teacher leadership skills in three important ways. First, the courses it comprises are designed to strengthen the specific knowledge and skills needed in Boston, ensuring teachers' capacity-building efforts connect directly with district needs. Second, the certificate benefits from a partnership among the district, the local education fund, and local institutions of higher education. This collaboration enables teachers to earn graduate credits for participating in high-quality, role-relevant professional learning. Lastly, experienced teacher leaders are the designers and instructors for the certificate's core courses to ensure that the certificate meets the demands of participants' work.