Croton-Harmon Teachers Receive National Certification

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, NY — Five teachers in the Croton-Harmon schools are among 98 New York teachers who recently earned National Board Certification. The sought-after program develops and recognizes teaching excellence that directly benefits students in the classroom.

There are 16 Hudson Valley teachers among 98 from across the state who succeeded in proving to the Virginia-based National Board for Professional Teaching Standards — through performance-based assessments, writing and videotapes demonstrating a wide range of teaching skills — that they meet the very highest standards of the teaching profession.

Research has indicated that students taught by nationally certified teachers show increased learning by an additional one to two months of instruction, with the effect magnified for minority and poor students.

"New York is known across the nation for its rigorous certification process and the very high quality of its teachers. Even so, these 98 have voluntarily challenged themselves and proven to an independent board that they rank among the ‘best of the best,’" said NYSUT President Andy Pallotta. "Their union is extremely proud of them and we celebrate this tremendous accomplishment with them."

NYSUT Executive Vice President Jolene DiBrango said that, with these additions, New York now has 2,016 teachers who have reached the "gold standard" of the teaching profession. In addition, 52 New York teachers learned this week that they have successfully renewed their national certification for a 10-year period.

"As New York faces a looming teacher shortage, we — as a society — must change the way we look at the teaching profession," DiBrango said. "Just as we celebrate athletes and artistic performances with awards, we should do the same for highly accomplished classroom teachers who do the most important job on earth — educate our state’s children."

Achieving national certification is difficult and time-consuming.

Candidates typically spend 200-400 hours of their own time having their teaching assessed against rigorous standards through an extensive series of performance-based assessments, including teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes and thorough analyses and reflection of the candidate’s teaching and student learning. The process involves written exercises that probe the depth of the candidate’s subject area knowledge as well as their understanding of how to teach those subjects.

Here are the teachers from the Hudson Valley:

• Sharon Kennedy NEWBURGH
• Kelly McAvoy-Giarrusso WHITE PLAINS
• Cindy Binnie ARLINGTON
• Julie Cupertino YONKERS
• Robbin Dilley STORM KING SCHOOL
• Erica Camilo CROTON-HARMON
• Lisa Dwyer CROTON-HARMON
• Gregory Bradley CROTON-HARMON
• Nancy Pratley BREWSTER
• Jocelyn Perez HASTINGS ON HUDSON
• Stephen Palencsar CROTON-HARMON
• Elizabeth Hoffman-Lohmeyer WAPPINGERS
• Catherine Perri WAPPINGERS
• Chris Yi BRONXVILLE
• Sara Jernigan ARLINGTON
• Kerri Tracy CROTON-HARMON

Image via Shutterstock

SEE: Mid-Hudson Valley Teachers Earn Prestigious National Certification