POMONA – Several Pomona Unified School District teachers recently received national recognition for their dedication to ensuring student success and commitment to teaching excellence, including three who have obtained National Board Certification.

Melissa De Nova of San Antonio Elementary, Jessica Jordon of Simons Middle School and Sabrina Ortega, a teacher on special assignment, join 14 PUSD teachers who are nationally board certified – considered the gold standard in teacher certification.

Additionally, five teachers are among the first educators in the nation to be named to the Renaissance National Honor Roll for their outstanding performance in advancing students’ achievement in reading. They are Michael Dyer of Decker Elementary and Allison Elementary teachers Marie Anderson, Nicole Le, Carmen Martinez and Brenda Wilmore.

“Our teachers are always willing to go the extra mile and challenge themselves in order to provide the highest quality education possible for our students,” said Board of Education President Andrew Wong. “Our students continue to excel because of the excellent support and instruction our teachers are providing, which is a direct result of their rigorous training and practices.”

Granted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the National Board Certification is the highest recognition an educator can achieve and serves as the profession’s mark of accomplished teaching in a single subject area. To qualify, teachers must demonstrate expertise in a chosen subject through multiple rigorous, performance-based measures.

In California, only 6,249 teachers have been honored with this certification. PUSD now includes 17 nationally board certified educators.

The Renaissance National Honor Roll is a new distinction awarded to teachers for their exceptional use of Renaissance Learning’s flagship software program, Accelerated Reader. Using this program, students in every PUSD schools learn to read closely through instructional activities that allow them to practice reading, writing and research, enabling teachers to monitor comprehension and growth.

“We are very proud of our accomplished teachers and commend them for their hard work,” said Superintendent Richard Martinez. “Each form of recognition further reinforces the extremely high level of dedication our teaching professionals give every day in order to strengthen the quality of instruction our students receive on a daily basis.”

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

RECOGNITION1: Jessica Jordan of Simons Middle School, Melissa De Nova of San Antonio Elementary, and Sabrina Ortega, a teacher on special assignment, have been honored with National Board Certifications. They were recognized by the Pomona Unified Board of Education on March 3.

RECOGNITION2: Five teachers from Allison and Decker Elementary Schools have been named to the Renaissance Learning Empowered Educator National Honor Roll for outstanding student achievement in using Accelerated Reader. They were recognized by the Pomona Unified Board of Education on March 3.