Education

D.C. Honors Board-Certified Teachers

By Stephen Sawchuk — February 13, 2009 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Earlier this week, education leaders from the District of Columbia honored 20 new teachers who successfully earned advanced certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. That figure is quadruple what it was last year.

Both D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, were in attendance. (It’s reassuring to know that the two women can actually be in the same room together without spontaneously combusting.) Both made what sounded like conciliatory remarks about the D.C. contract situation.

“Regardless of all the issues we may have, hopefully we can find a path to navigate them that will be good for kids of Washington and that will use and be fair to the exceptional talent of educators in Washington, D.C. schools,” Weingarten said.

The kinder, gentler Rhee also thanked teachers for their contributions. “We’ve done a bad job telling our great teachers that they are doing great things,” she said.

She added that she’s been meeting with groups of 15 to 20 teachers over the last few weeks in informal listening sessions. “One of the things they say is, ‘You’re a lot nicer than we thought.’”

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teacher Beat blog.