PENINSULA STUDENTS RECEIVE ACCREDITATION

Three Williamsburg-area teachers in Old Dominion University's Field-Based Master's Program have received accreditation from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, a non-partisan organization founded in 1987 to recognize superior teachers across the United States.

Terri Rottenger, a math teacher at Berkeley Middle School; Cornelia Shepard, math teacher at Jamestown High School; and Kristi Wagner, a biology teacher and department chair at Jamestown High School, each recently received the certification.

"I think this is pretty significant since this is a rigorous process," said Irene McCaffrey, coordinator of the Field Based Master's Program at Old Dominion's Peninsula Higher Education Center.

Annually, fewer than 100 teachers in each state receive this certification.

To receive certification, teachers undergo a year-long review period during which they submit various forms of evidence of their outstanding teaching ability and capacity to work with students, community leaders and family members.

Rottenger, Shepard and Wagner are students in the program through Old Dominion's Department of Educational Curriculum and Instruction.

Old Dominion's Darden College of Education regularly offers individual courses off-campus so area teachers do not have to commute to the main campus. Moreover, the department has committed itself to this form of service to area teachers through its Field-Based Master's Program since its inception in 1978.