N

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

Professional organization that establishes rigorous professional teaching standards and grants National Board Certification; NBPTS.

native language

The first language that a person learns and speaks as a child.

NCLB

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the key law governing K-12 education in the United States; introduced major reforms in state academic standards, assessment, accountability, and student improvement.

network

Multiple computers connected with a telecommunication system; can be as large as the Internet or as small as two computers linked together to share printers and files.

networked learning environment (NLE)

A networked community of students, teachers, and digital resources that can be accessed from anywhere (with a linked computer) at anytime; used to the limits of time, space, environment, and resources to make learning more accessible to a wider range of people.

norm referenced

Test scoring that evaluates a student's performance on a test as a measure relative to the performance of all other test takers; results in a distribution of scores that resembles a bell curve; opposite of criterion-referenced scores.