WASHINGTON — Every school district wants a teacher like Mark Ingerson. He loves the history he teaches at Salem High School, eagerly prepares his southwestern Virginia students for state tests, helps train other teachers and has won awards.

Yet at 31, his base salary is only $39,000 a year. He once assumed he would have to become an administrator to give his wife and young daughter the kind of life he thinks they deserve.

Then, in the fall, he received news that might be the key to keeping him with students for the rest of his career. He was certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards as a national board-certified teacher. Unlike other honors, this one came with cash: $7,500 this year, followed by annual $5,000 bonuses for the next nine years.

More than 40,000 teachers in 50 states and Washington, D.C., have received national certification, a process that requires $2,300 to apply, takes hundreds of hours, and has a more than 50 percent failure rate for first-time applicants. With more than 30 states, including Washington, and the nation's capital giving bonuses or higher salaries to successful applicants, it is the single most powerful merit-pay system in public education today, educators say.

A rival group, the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, is designing its own award, putting more emphasis on classroom results and thus increasing the likelihood of more teachers receiving elevated status and more money. As states and school systems become more accustomed to this way of advancing careers, experts say, the teaching profession may evolve into something more like law and medicine, in which the most effective and energetic practitioners often make the most money.

Although the bonuses are welcome — Ingerson plans to spend his on furniture — they don't appear to be as important to many as the improved status signified by a valued title whose authority is buttressed with a big check, according to interviews with nationally certified teachers.

"Money is a proxy for respect in our society," said Gary Galluzzo, education professor at George Mason University and a former executive vice president of the Arlington, Va.-based board that grants the national certificates.

Patrick Ledesma, a technology specialist at a suburban middle school, spent his bonus remodeling his home. But what he likes most about the certificate is that it opens "a career path that doesn't involve leaving the classroom," he said. He plans to grow professionally "through opportunities such as mentoring, curriculum development, team leadership."

Linda Hoekstra, who teaches third- and fourth-graders, proudly listed the many forms of recognition that have come from the certification: an adjunct professorship at George Mason University, a radio spot during national education week, magazine interviews, speeches to other teachers, coaching and mentoring work, service on a teacher advisory board and praise from parents.

Some certificate-holders noted the particularly delicious pleasure, bordering on revenge, of proving the worth of their ideas and classroom techniques to people who once may have dismissed them.

Claudia Bezaka, a high-school French instructor, acknowledged that the one-time lump sum of $5,000 awarded by the Washington school system isn't as much as the awards from neighboring Maryland and Virginia. But she still enjoys the feeling of vindication. "The seasoned teachers in my field who questioned me and dismissed my techniques, my alternative teaching strategies and style, can no longer deny my efficacy as a language instructor," she said.

Ingerson said he feels the same thrill. Some teachers dismissed his techniques — heavy on rhymes, pictures, songs and skits — as playing, not really teaching. One told him upfront that he wouldn't attend an Ingerson-led training session because "I see your dog-and-pony show every day." Since he received the certificate, Ingerson said, "what can they say now?"

Initial studies indicate that certified teachers produce higher achievement in their students. If more research verifies that, the bonuses may spread.