Substantial federal resources are allocated each year to National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) program, but the effectiveness of the program is unknown and resources devoted to the program may be unjustified. The purpose of the nonexperimental quantitative study was to examine the impact of NBPTS certification on student achievement measured through Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and grade point averages on students taught by NBPTS certified and non-certified teachers. An ex post facto research design was employed with 103 students from Howard County Public School system in Maryland. The results indicate there were no differences between the two groups of students SAT test scores in any of the three domains. However, results from the regression analysis with GPAs as the dependent variable were statistically F(5, 97) = 6.24, p < 0.001. Specifically, students who were taught by NBPTS certified teachers tended to have higher GPAs than those who were taught by non-NRPTS certified teachers (ß= 0.30, p < 0.001) even when controlling for gender, ethnicity, and social economic status (SES). Supplemental results indicated that SES was predictive of student achievement: for all four criterion variables (SAT Mathematics, ß = -0.32, p = 0.003; SAT Reading, ß = -0.32, p = 0.003; SAT Writing, ß = -0.35, p < 0.001; and GPAs, ß = -0.34, p < 0.001), with students receiving free or reduced price lunch having lower levels of achievement than those who did not receive free or reduced price lunch. In addition, African American students tended to have higher scores on SAT Mathematics test (ß = 0.21, p = 0.040) and SAT Reading test (ß = 0.22, p = 0.038) than Hispanic students. When the goal of educational, administrators is to increase students' GPAs, expending financial and other resources on encouraging and supporting teachers' efforts to obtain NBPTS certification is warranted. When the focus of educational administration is on achievement test scores rather than GPAs, other programs may be more successful than NBPTS certification. Researchers should examine additional outcome variables, build comprehensive models of student achievement, and replicate results from this study in other districts. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]