Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Teachers Achieve National Board Certification

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) and Board of Education are proud to announce to the community that among its staff of outstanding teachers, nine elementary and secondary school teachers have achieved National Board Certification in 2004 - 2005. The following teachers have successfully completed the rigorous National Board certification process: Rebecca Johnson – Grant Elementary School; Renata Gusmao-Garcia - John Muir Elementary; Erica Ross - Webster Elementary; Chon Lee and Sharon Hart - Lincoln Middle School; Amy Bouse, Mary Hendra, Steve Rupprecht, and Chris Rhodes (on leave) - Santa Monica High School.

A reception in honor of the new National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) will be held Thursday, February 2, 2006 at 5:00pm, followed by recognition at the Board of Education Meeting the same evening.

National Board Certification is the highest credential in the teaching profession. A voluntary process established by the National Boards for the Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), certification is achieved through a rigorous, performance-based assessment that typically takes more than a year to complete. This process requires teachers to demonstrate how their activities, both inside and outside of the classroom, improve student achievement.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District now has a total of 54 National Board Certified Teachers. In California, 298 teachers achieved certification this year, for a total of 3,379, which helps make California fourth in the nation in the overall total of NBCTs.

When the NBCTs for 2005 were revealed, SMMUSD Superintendent, John Deasy, remarked, “The National Board Certification process is the single best professional development opportunity available. This is a nationally benchmarked standard of excellence in teaching. This process has changed the culture of the profession more than anything else.”

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan and nongovernmental organization governed by a board of directors, the majority of whom are classroom teachers. Its mission is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. For more information about NBPTS, please visit http://www.nbpts.org.

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SANTA MONICA-MALIBU UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

1651 16^th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404

310.450.8338 Fax 310.581.1138

www.smmusd.org