More NESA Teachers Nationally Recognized

Lisa File and Kay Saich Achieve National Board Certification®—The Profession's Top Honor

Excerpted from a press release by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, December 2, 2003. www.nbpts.org

LISA FILE of Waimea, Hawaii, and KAY SAICH, currently living in Medellin, Colombia, are two of 8,195 elementary and secondary school teachers nationwide who achieved National Board Certification in 2003, according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). This achievement brings the total number of National Board Certified Teachers® (NBCTs) to 32,130.

Lisa File teaches Elementary and High School Physical Education at The American International School of Muscat, Oman, and was formerly at The American Embassy School in New Delhi, India. Ms File has been a teacher for 15 years and holds degrees in Physical Education and Health. Kay Saich taught at the International Schools Group-Dhahran Academy, Saudi Arabia, from 1999-2003, and now works at The Columbus School in Medellin, Colombia. She earned NB certification in Early Adolescence Mathematics.

Founded 16 years ago, NBPTS is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan and non-governmental organization dedicated to advancing the quality of teaching and learning. National Board Certification is the highest credential in the teaching profession. A voluntary process established by NBPTS, certification is achieved through a rigorous performance-based assessment that takes between one and three years to complete and measures what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.

"Teacher quality has never been more important, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is the only organization of its kind helping states to identify and certify highly accomplished teachers," says NBPTS President Joseph A. Aguerrebere. "Through National Board Certified Teachers, states and communities are realizing the enormous benefits of using National Board Certification as a tool to attract, reward and retain highly accomplished teachers as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act."

Forty-nine states and more than 500 school districts across the U.S. have implemented policies and regulations to recruit, reward and retain National Board Certified Teachers.

"It is important to understand that the National Board Certification process not only identifies accomplished teachers, but also is a profound professional development experience," says Aguerrebere. "This is a process that forces teachers to demonstrate how their activities, both inside and outside of the classroom, improve student achievement."

In its effort to measure the impact of National Board Certification and the effects of NBCTs on the quality of teaching and student achievement in America's schools, NBPTS has engaged in an independent, rigorous research agenda. There have been more than 140 studies, reports and papers commissioned on the value of the National Board Certification process, as well as its standards and assessments. Findings and results from a number of research studies are expected to be completed in 2004 and 2005.

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NOTE: NESA has been awarded a grant by the NBPTS to assist teachers at NESA schools who are candidates for NB Certification. Click here for details.

OTHER NB-CERTIFIED NESA TEACHERS: Marla Shukri (Amman), Debbie Bacon (Schutz Amer. Sch-Alexandria), Maria Amelia Woods (also formerly at Schutz, now in Helsinki)

If you know of other NESA teachers who have earned National Board Certification, please let us know! nesa@nesacenter.org

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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