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By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 14, 2000
INVERNESS -- Seven Citrus County public school teachers were recognized Tuesday by the district for their participation in the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Program and earning national certification.
The teachers are: Kevin Bingham, Citrus High School (adolescence and young adulthood science); Michelle Bingham, Inverness Primary School (early childhood through young adulthood exceptional needs specialist); Brenda Dalton, Lecanto Middle School (art); Nancy Hemenway, Inverness Middle School (early adolescence English/language arts); Michelle Loreth, Lecanto Primary School (middle childhood generalist); Dawn Mundy, Inverness Primary School (middle childhood generalist), and Martha Sleep, Lecanto High School (early adolescence science).
National Board Certification is voluntary and takes nearly a year to complete. Through the rigorous assessment process, teachers must document their subject knowledge, provide evidence of effective teaching and demonstrate that they can manage and measure student learning.
The program is not only demanding and time-consuming, it is expensive. The application fee is $2,300, but in 1998 the Florida Legislature created the Florida Excellent Teaching Program Act to help ease the financial burden. Teachers who successfully complete the certification process are provided with 90 per cent of the fee.
Nationally certified teachers also receive a 10 per cent salary bonus, plus a 10 per cent bonus for agreeing to act as mentors to other teachers.
"Everyone wins when teachers put themselves through this demanding, voluntary certification process," said Linda Ferrara, local coordinator of the National Board Certification/Florida Excellent Teaching Program in a prepared statement. "Teachers say they are better teachers as a result, students benefit by having higher quality teachers in their classrooms, and parents and community leaders are pleased to see schools improve beginning with a higher quality teacher in the classroom."