Date:
4/23/2012
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 575.562.2253
PORTALES - The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) will jointly host a summit on the teaching profession and its impacts on student achievement on Friday, April 27, in the Becky Sharp Auditorium in the College of Business Building on the Portales campus
The meeting, “Transforming Education through Effective Teaching,” will include policymakers and staff from state and federal legislatures, as well as teachers, superintendents and other regional leaders in education.
The meeting is slated to cover the links between teacher development and student achievement and will discuss the path to encouraging and supporting educators from around the region to obtain National Board Certification.
“As the nation focuses on building the strongest possible teaching workforce, National Board Certification is the gold standard in affirming excellence in the classroom,” said Ronald Thorpe, president and CEO of NBPTS.
“These highly qualified teachers are true ‘nation builders,’ and are the educators who are best positioned to lead the ground-up movement our schools need to reach their potential.”
To date, there are 675 National Board Certified Teachers in New Mexico – a number that translates to just under three percent of the state’s public school teaching population.
“We’re very excited to have this discussion,” said Elwyn Hulett of ENMU’s College of Education and Technology. "Incorporating National Board Certification into state education policy and practice would be absolutely transformational for the state of New Mexico.”
Attending from NBPTS are Thorpe, president and CEO; Michelle Accardi, director, State Policy and Advocacy; Andrea Hajek, director, NBCT Engagement; and Emma Parkerson, manager, New Business Development.
Also expected to attend are representatives from the New Mexico Higher Education Department.
Superintendents, NBPTS public school teachers, student teachers and all legislators from the eastern side of New Mexico have been invited.
Here is the agenda:
10:00–10:30 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks
10:30–11:30 a.m. The Impact of National Board Certification on Students and Teachers
11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Lunch/Speaker (Campus Union Ballroom)
12:15–1:30 p.m. Breakout Sessions
Session A - Higher Education: Preparing Effective Teachers
Session B - A District Model for Impacting Student Achievement
Session C - Policy Designed to Promote Student Achievement and Accomplished Teaching
Session D - Accomplished Teaching and Networking
1:30-2 p.m. Closing Remarks and Next Steps
NBPTS is nationally recognized as the source for the highest standards and practices that lead to improved teaching, leading and learning; and several independent studies have shown that students of National Board Certified Teachers exhibit deeper learning outcomes and higher testing achievements than students of non-National Board Certified Teachers.
A voluntary assessment program designed to develop, retain and recognize accomplished teachers, and to embed ongoing school improvement in schools nationwide, National Board Certification is achieved through performance-based assessment and testing that takes one to three years to complete.
For more information about the summit, contact Michelle Accardi, NBCT and Director for State Policy and Advocacy, at 703-465-2178, or Elwyn Hulett at 575-562-2266 or Vicky Wood at 575.562.4110 at ENMU.