Congratulations to Mary Ellen Bray, NBCT on Becoming National Board Certified

Mary Ellen Bray, of Gaffney Lane, has become the ninth teacher in the Oregon City School District to receive National Board Certification.

She is the first in our district to qualify in the area of Literacy: Reading-Language Arts, Early and Middle Childhood.

The process for becoming an NBCT is a rigorous process of writing a portfolio with analysis of self-taught video taped lessons and written assessments which can take from 200 to 400 hours in a 1-3 year time period.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards cites a June 2008 report from the National Research Council of the National Academics as it “affirmed that NBPTS and its advanced teacher certification program have had a positive impact on student achievement, teacher retention and professional development.” In fact, the certified teachers in our district believe this professional development process has had the greatest impact on improving their teaching practice and positive impact on student learning.

Mary Ellen Bray is among the 4 who qualified in Oregon this year. There are now 234 National Board Certified Teachers in Oregon and more than 82,000 teachers across the county to have qualified. Congratulations Mary Ellen.