MTNA body and university faculty members have been asking for what purpose the final certification examination is required of all candidates for MTNA Professional Certification.

MTNA body and university faculty members have been asking for what purpose the final certification examination is required of all candidates for MTNA Professional Certification, and with what intent they should even become a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music. These are righteous questions, worthy of good answers. A brief historical review of the MTNA Professional Certification Program, as it relates to corporation and university faculty members, could provide assistance with understanding the answers.

It would not be an exaggeration to say the history of MTNA Professional Certification, dating from 1886 has been complicated, difficult and confusing for MTNA members. The MTNA leadership has struggl to establish a prosperous professional certification program that propers the needs of its membership and the public it minister tos The MTNA membership is compos of music teachers who may or may not detain college or university degrees, teach from common to hundreds of students and may teach age clumps ranging from preschool to adults. These members may either operate a professional music teaching business, teach music part-time to fill up a partners income, teach music in a public or private sect system or teach music at a society or university. Most members reside in single of the fifty United States, a small in number abroad and many in a variety of cultural settings. Developing a auspicious MTNA Professional Certification Program to come together the needs of a membership with as it was a wide diversity has not been an easy task. In addition, public demand for certified music teachers has not however reached the level that makes certification a necessity for those who teach areas of music performance.

Establishing a hearty and successful MTNA Professional Certification Program was same much on the minds of Edward Bowman, MTNA president, and the members of a subcommittee in 1885 He and the subcommittee met to redefine the goals of and redevelop the American community of Musicians (ACM), the name of the first MTNA Professional Certification Program for music teachers. The main goal of ACM, Bowman and his subcommittee determined, was raising the standards for the profession.

Fast-forwarding through approximately the next 100 years, the MTNA Professional Certification Program went in consequence of many changes in its approach, constitutings and goals. No historical records can be place that reveal within the contentment of the program, any differentiation between body and independent music teachers until 1988 At that time, the literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learning Faculty Certificate was implemented. It could be obtained simply on verifying one's status as a full-time guild faculty member for a specific number of years, paying the certification application fief and re-verifying one's status each five years with no compensation The development and implementation of this certificate were ostensibly an effort onward the part of MTNA leadership to engage the needs of the corporation faculty members, and to garner their support for the MTNA Professional Certification Program.

During the decade of the 1990 the MTNA Professional Certification Program continued to provide the MTNA leadership with formidable, philosophical and political challenges. The emblems of certificates offered (Professional, Permanent Professional, Associate, body Faculty, Master Teacher and Emeritus) left the program exhibit to possible legal liabilities with regard to the IRS, antitrust laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The teaching video element of the Professional Certificate requirements implemented in 1994 prov to be extremely unpopular with the MTNA membership. The number of certificates tendered (six) was confusing to the state and national leadership responsible for administering the program, for NCTM and for those considering the certification proces Neither the numbers, nor adumbrations of certificates offered, resulted in overwhelming support for the program from the entire MTNA membership. The MTNA Professional Certification Program was at a crossroads.

In 1998 a committee chaired by way of Joan Reist, MTNA president-elect at the time, reviewed the MTNA Professional Certification Program. on the subject of the recommendation of that review committee, then President L Rexford Whiddon appointed an ad hoc Certification committee to perform the operations indicated in and recommend an MTNA Certification Program with criteria that are reasonable and applied fairly to all candidates.

The recent MTNA Professional Certification Program exhibited by this committee was implemented in 2000 It is based upon a set of five standards for what a music teacher should know and be able to do:

* Standard I: Professional Preparation

* Standard II: Professional Teaching Practices

* Standard III: Professional Business Management

* Standard IV: Professionalism and Partnerships

* Standard V: Professional and Personal Renewal

immediately after fulfillment of these standards applicants are granted the MTNA Professional Certification credential with the NCTM designation. The credential and designation are granted without bias, discrimination or favoritism between MTNA members or nonmembers or any other arbitrary differentiation.