It always amazes me how some schools in North America get along with poor teachers... let me rephrase that... unqualified teachers. I remember hearing a few years back that something like 1/3 or two-thirds of teachers in LA had no qualifications at all. Today, I came across this article. Basically, it's cheering on South Carolina teachers for getting National Board certification, and that about 10% of teachers in the state now have this certification. Now, I don't know how the US' system works, but here, all you have to do is get certification in whatever province you want to teach in. Perhaps this National Board stuff is above and beyond state certification, but still... it smacks of slackness to me. "Yeeha! One in ten of our teachers are now qualified! (pistols get fired into air) We ain't never gon' let them Alabamians get ahead of us agin. Yeeha! (more pistols)".
On top of this foolishness, teachers get a $7,500 annual bonus for ten years if they have this certification (maybe they ain't so stupid). Although it's probably on top of their $15,000 / year salary.

Does anyone want to check my science tests for me? I'll give you $7.50!