Raise Your Hand

Raise Your Hand set a $1,000,000 fundraising goal to fund National Board Certification for teachers across Huntsville City, Madison City, and Madison County Schools. That goal has been met.

The campaign's scholarship goal is 500 new NBCTs across our three school systems. That work is in progress, and all three school systems rank in Alabama's top five for new NBCTs.

National Board Certification is one of the most respected professional certifications in K-12 education. It requires teachers to examine their own practice, analyze student learning, demonstrate content knowledge, and show how their instruction meets the needs of individual students. The process is rigorous and can take several years to complete.

The results justify the effort. Research has consistently found that students taught by National Board Certified Teachers learn more than students taught by non-certified teachers, with gains equivalent to an additional one to two months of instruction. The effect is larger still for high-need students. Certified teachers are also more likely to stay in the profession, which helps schools hold onto experienced educators.

Huntsville and Madison County are on track to have the highest concentration of National Board Certified Teachers in the nation. In November 2025, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards recognized Raise Your Hand and announced that Huntsville and Madison County are on track to have the highest concentration of National Board Certified Teachers in the nation among comparable metropolitan areas.