NATIONAL BOARD CERTIFICATION: Letter from the Superintendent

When I came back last Saturday, December 30, 2006 from attending the wedding of my coPinoy teachers in Crystal City, Virginia, I got a letter from the mail from the Office of the Superintendent. I was worried of what it may be about. After the difficulties that I've been through in my workplace I thought this is another blow, but I was wrong.

The letter said:

Dear Ms. Angala:

Congratulations! You have decided to undertake one of the most rewarding and challenging professional development opportunities of your career - National Board Certification (NBC). Your involvement in this process serves as one effective strategy for you to enhance your professional skills and pedagogy. Thank you for your participation and willingness to strive for "excellence" as it relates to teaching and learning in the District of Columbia Public Schools.

I value the contributions you make to the field of education on the local, state, and national levels, and especially the support you offer the students entrusted to your care on a daily basis. The classroom teacher is the single most important facet in providing quality education. Accomplished educators ensure students are equipped with the tools necessary to thrive and progress academically, emotionally, and socially in the classroom and beyond.

I would like to encourage you to forge ahead and remain committed to the completion of the NBC process. You have until March 31, 2007, to submit the portfolio component to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. I am confident you can accomplish this goal. As you prepare for the assessment center exercises over April, May, and June, I wish you much success. Ideally, we would like to have a 100% completion rate! We can not accomplish this objective without your continued involvement.

DCPS (DC Public Schools) has established the goal of 500 National Board Certified Teachers by 2010. We would like to have you listed among this distinguished group of teachers. You must complete the process in this first year, but please remember you have up to three years to actually obtain this credential.

As a voluntary process, I am convinced this is a personal goal you have set for yourself, and is one that I fully endorse and champion. Best wishes on your professional journey toward National Board Certification.

Respectfully,

(signed)
Clifford B. Janey, Ed.D
Superintendent

It is really a personal decision for me to do what it takes to succeed. But it is reassuring to know that the Superintendent knows about this and is a supporter of what I am, and the rest of the NBC candidates are, advocating for.

Dr. Janey, thank you for providing the NBC candidates with the equipment that we need. We already received three months ago the Mac laptop, digital camera, video camcorder, and the HP printer. These help us go through the process with convenience, but of course it is still our knowledge and practice that will be tested. I understand fully that the Five Core Propositions form the foundation and frame the rich amalgam of knowledge, skills, dispositions and beliefs that characterize National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs). These principles are known to many teachers but lived by few educators.

Thank you for believing in me. I accept the challenge.

*** Please see the right sidebar here for more of my National Board Certification candidacy chronicles.