Indiana public school districts are seeing a decline in third-graders' reading proficiency, and as of 2019, Indiana public school districts have implemented the national professional teaching standards for three decades. Previous research studies do not provide a consensus if a statistically significant relationship exists between employing National Board-Certified teachers and third-graders' reading proficiency scores. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to identify possible comparative differences and relational effects between Indiana public schools' districts with and without the presence of National Board-Certified teachers (independent nominal variables) and reading proficiency scores (independent nominal variable). Vroom's expectancy theory and transformational leadership theory, in concert, provided this study's theoretical framework. The targeted population consisted of all public school districts in Indiana (N = 291). The sample population in the study consisted of Indiana districts employing National Board-Certified teachers (n = 35) and a random selection of Indiana public school districts not employing National Board-Certified teachers (n = 35), making a total sample size of (n = 70). Secondary archival data were used in this study as an instrument to collect reading proficiency scores from districts with and without National Board-Certified teachers. Initially, the X[superscript 2] test of independence was used to compute the critical ratio between two contingency tables but failed one of the assumption tests. Fisher's exact test was used as the alternative statistical test. This study joins several other research studies reporting on the relationship between NBCTs and student achievement. Indiana educational leaders are provided with recommendations in hopes of providing solutions to address America's reading crisis. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]