RIORDAN BANKROLLS TEACHERS' HONOR BID.Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer Boosting his role as the city's self-described ``education mayor,'' Richard Riordan pledged $30,000 of his own money Wednesday to help Los Angeles teachers earn a difficult and prestigious national certification national certification Lab medicine A voluntary form of regulation that affirms that a person has the knowledge and skill to perform essential tasks in a given field, in the lab or in nursing; NC is granted by nongovernmental agencies or associations with . ``This is a landmark day, where 60 teachers from the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) have committed themselves to rigorous and difficult study to become part of an elite group - they are the true Rhodes scholars of the teaching profession,'' Riordan said at a news conference. The mayor appeared with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and other education officials at the South Central Los Angeles school The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. where the district's only nationally certified teacher works. Riordan's contribution will help 60 applicants defray de·fray tr.v. de·frayed, de·fray·ing, de·frays To undertake the payment of (costs or expenses); pay. [French défrayer, from Old French desfrayer : des-, the $2,000 application cost for certification. Only 492 teachers nationwide have earned National Board Certification board certification n. The process by which a person is tested and approved to practice in a specialty field, especially medicine, after successfully completing the requirements of a board of specialists in that field. , a process that promotes excellence in teaching. Myra LeBendig, an English teacher at the Foshay Learning Center, is the only instructor with that certification in the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. . Instructors and the LAUSD have set a goal to have at least one nationally board-certified teacher in every school within 10 years, said Day Higuchi, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. Earlier this school year, the district and the UTLA UTLA United Teachers of Los Angeles (California) negotiated a new contract that will give every teacher who gains national certification a 15 percent pay raise. ``It allows teachers to make a professional salary without leaving the classroom, without giving up what they love the most,'' Higuchi said. Riley said the district's commitment will help President Clinton reach his goal of having 100,000 teachers become board certified board certified, adj the status of a dental specialist such as an orthodontist who has become a board diplomate by successfully completing the certification program of the recognized certification board in that area of practice. in the next decade. ``Students here in Los Angeles and all of America's big cities need better teaching more than ever before,'' he said. ``Last week, an independent report showed that more than half the students in our nation's urban schools are failing to master the basics in reading, math and science.'' LeBendig said the certification process is an exhausting and difficult one, but worth the effort. Certification is granted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and takes about a year. Teachers are expected to film their classes and write analyses of their teaching methods and the students' work. ``It makes you hold a mirror up to your teaching practices, and it makes you a better teacher,'' LeBendig said. Julie Korenstein, president of the Los Angeles Board of Education and whose district is in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , said the district needs teachers of the highest caliber who could train fledgling instructors. ``We need you desperately,'' she said to teachers applying for the honor. Since schools in the state began reducing class sizes, the district has been forced to embark on a massive hiring effort to fill new classrooms. ``In the last two years we've hired 6,000 new teachers, and many are emergency credentialed,'' Korenstein said. ``Hurry and become certified.'' |
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