Back when the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was launched in 1987, most of the talk in its favor cited one overarching problem: the weakness of the teaching profession. If professional standards were better defined, if professional rewards were greater, the argument went, schools and learning would improve. These days policymakers and the public are increasingly riveted on student test scores as a way to gauge achievement. That has been at best a mixed blessing for the NBPTS, which May 2006 found itself in an embarrassing fix as it tried to downplay the very study that it had at one time portrayed as the answer to those who zeroed in on scores. The research, conducted at the board's behest by William L. Sanders of the SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, concluded that nationally certified teachers were not significantly better than others when it came to growth in student achievement. While board officials were quick to point out that other studies had pointed in the opposite direction, the worth of the credential was called into question. Still, NBPTS advocates favor the long view. Looking back, they say, the Arlington, Virginia based board has accomplished much of what it most specifically set out to do in the more than 10 years it has been awarding the country's only national certification for experienced teachers. And they remain confident that the certification has strengthened the profession, paying dividends for student learning--though not yet enough.