CareerTech Instructors Achieve National Board Certification

Story by Ann Houston
Communications and Marketing

Sixteen CareerTech public school instructors recently joined the ranks of the 61 CareerTech instructors who have received the prestigious status as a National Board Certified Teacher during the past four years.

This year 226 of Oklahoma’s teachers – including the16 CareerTech instructors – received recognition in what started as a nationally significant incentive program to improve teacher quality in the classroom, according to Dr. Phil Berkenbile, CareerTech interim director.

Oklahoma now ranks eighth in the nation with 858 teachers nationally certified since the program was first adopted and funded by the state Legislature in1997.

“Teacher certification is part of state and local efforts to improve teacher quality and meet the federal requirements for a highly qualified teacher in every classroom,” Berkenbile said.

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, according to 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.”

CareerTech teachers achieving national certification, and the programs they instruct, include: Tiffany American Horse and Cindy Brown, business and information technology education (BITE) instructors at Union Schools Broken Arrow; Vivian Bishop, BITE, Tulsa Hale, Andrew Ford, BITE, Tulsa Webster; and Marcia Young, family and consumer sciences education (FACS), Tulsa East Central. Also, Shelly Carter, BITE from Wes Watkins Technology Center, Wetumka; Ronald Curry, agricultural education, Central High School in Marlow; Vallery Feldman, BITE, Prague High School and Janet Harris, BITE, Piedmont High School.

Also included are: Peggy Haynes, FACS El Reno High School; Teresa Hollarn, FACS, Marlow High School; Carolyn Phillips, BITE, Hartshorne Schools; Dee Price, FACS, Pioneer Technology Center; Joe Sieber, trade and industrial education at Guthrie High School; Susanne Silk, BITE at Western Technology Center, Sayre campus; and Tracie Rivera, former health occupations education instructor in the Oklahoma City School District.