Teachers with the credential, which enhances pay and reputation, tend to work in richer schools with fewer minorities.

But this year, 11 Knightdale Elementary teachers hold certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The number has more than tripled since 2002. Six more teachers this year are working toward certification.

Knightdale has done this despite state policy that does little to bolster those numbers in schools facing tougher challenges. Even though the state spends more than $42 million on extra pay to reward nationally certified teachers, only about one of 10 works in the one-fifth of public schools that are the state's poorest.

Rare exception

Knightdale teacher Amy Diamond said she was encouraged by the school's administration and other teachers, several of whom also went after the credential the same year.

"Knowing that other people were doing it helped," said Diamond, who earned the certification a few years ago. "Knowing there would be support made a big difference."

But critics say there are too few teachers like Diamond.

"Why not make sure that all students have access to these teachers?" said Eddie Davis, president of the N.C. Association of Educators, which helped sponsor a conference two years ago focusing on solutions to the inequity.

North Carolina leads the nation with teachers who hold a national credential, considered the gold standard of the profession. The national board announced recently that more than 1,500 teachers in the state earned certification this year, the most in the nation, pushing the total number in the state to more than 11,000. A large part of the reason is a pay incentive matched by few other states.

North Carolina pays teachers with national certification an extra 12 percent on top of their annual salary, regardless of where they teach. That can mean upwards of $5,000 a year in additional pay.

Other states steer extra money to nationally certified teachers working in high-needs schools. California, Georgia and New York use pay incentives to help strengthen faculties in schools where students are most likely to be lagging academically.

Poor districts lag

A News & Observer analysis of 2005-06 data shows that in North Carolina, nationally certified teachers tend to be working in more affluent schools in the state's more affluent districts. A wealthy district such as Chapel Hill-Carrboro has among the highest ratios of nationally certified teachers to students in the state -- 17 of the teachers for every 1,000 students. By contrast, most of the five poor, rural districts that challenged the state in a long-running court case over school funding have fewer than five credentialed teachers per 1,000 students.

The Hoke County school system -- which has been the main focus of the lawsuit -- had only eight of the teachers last year, about one for every 1,000 students. Two Durham high schools tagged as low performing by the judge in the case have far fewer teachers with the national credential than most others in the Triangle: Hillside High last year had one; Southern High, three. At the other extreme, Durham's Jordan High had 17; East Chapel Hill High, 24; and Wake's Leesville Road High, 31.

Struggles with the gap

Howard Lee, chairman of the State Board of Education, said schools with greater numbers of struggling students need the advantage of teachers who've proven themselves based on the national certification.

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