3 TEACHERS TO GET PERFORMANCE BONUSES.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Three Lancaster School District teachers will each receive $5,000 for earning their profession's highest standard and working at schools whose pupils perform poorly on standardized tests.

Teachers Ed Esse, Suzann Rainone, and Linda Rodrigo all have obtained certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and work at schools with an Academic Performance Index ranking of 5 or lower.

``It's a state program. The state wants to encourage nationally certified teachers to go to areas where there is greatest need,'' Assistant Superintendent Howard Sundberg said.

Esse teaches at New Vista Middle School, and Rainone and Rodrigo teach at Jack Northrop School. Both schools have an API statewide ranking of 4.

Under the program, the state Department of Education pays certified teachers $5,000 every year for up to four years as long as they work as a classroom teacher at a low-performing school.

The program once offered a one-time cash reward of $10,000 but that was discontinued because of the state budget crisis.

Lancaster has five teachers who have successfully completed the rigorous process of obtaining a national board certification.

Teacher James Tanksley was the first instructor in the Antelope Valley to achieve the distinction in 2001 and has completed his four years of cash incentives.

Teacher Amy Jensen is now a reading coach and is no longer in the classroom, so she did not receive the annual stipend this year, Sundberg said.

Founded in 1987, the national board is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.

The process of obtaining certification has been described as being akin to physicians becoming board certified in their area of specialty.

As part of the certification process, instructors must submit two videos of them teaching in their classrooms and must analyze the literacy skills and growth of two students over the course of a year.

They must also submit lesson plans and develop social studies programs for their students. The teachers also take essay tests on how to plan units of instruction and are given various scenarios to critique and to form plans of action.

Esse, who teaches a gifted sixth-grade class, said he did not get the $10,000 one-time bonus as promised so he was disappointed in that. He also put in $3,800 out of his own pocket to participate in the program.

``I feel a little torn. You have to take such a huge risk in putting up your own money. It's like betting on yourself,'' said Esse, 38, who has been with the Lancaster district for 15 years, the last 10 at New Vista. ``About 2 percent of teachers attempt the program, and only half pass.''

This is the second year Esse has received the $5,000. He said he is putting the money toward his children's college education. He has three children, ages 6, 8, and 10.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com