GOOD 100: Meet Geneviève DeBose, Pushing Education Reform Forward

Geneviève DeBose is an education reformer championing the voices of the National Board Certified Teachers. Yes, that intimidating, chalk dust-covered cohort of 102,000 educators is actually pushing to improve the future of our youth by teaming up with DeBose, Director of Educator Engagement for the equally frightful sounding National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Daunting names aside, DeBose’s biggest project for 2013 will be ensuring that each NBCT voice becomes a force for positive change in the national conversation on education.

“Teachers do not own their profession and are not routinely included in the decision and policy-making that affects their students,” DeBose says, “which results in high rates of teacher turnover, low prestige, a lack of respect for the profession, and education policy that doesn’t always best reflect the needs of the students.”

NBPTS and its army of NBCTs are looking to finally change all this. Through strategic partnerships with key education organizations and by collaborating with a team of diverse stakeholders, the National Board looks to lead the transformation of the teaching profession this year through the implementation of powerful new tools for educators to strengthen their practices.

“As a National Board Certified Teacher myself, I know firsthand what a powerful force for good accomplished teachers are in the schools and communities in which we teach, in our states, and on the national level,” DeBose says, who has ten years of teaching experience to her name.

One such tool that will aid in this education development is the VOP (Video Observation Program), which couples videos of accomplished teaching with written analyses that describe the NBCT’s instructional strategies and decision-making. Another tool, ATLAS (Accomplished Teaching, Leading and Schools), uses these video cases to help future educators understand how skilled teachers design lessons, provide instruction, build classroom communities, and utilize assessments to facilitate student learning.

“A recent U.S. Department of Education i3 grant will pilot these tools in pre-service and induction programs, with the goal of widespread national adoption,” DeBose says.

From starting her career as a Teach for America Corps Member to being honored as a 2012 Department of Education Teaching Ambassador Fellow for middle school reform to now pushing to revolutionize education reform on a national level, DeBose is certainly one to follow.

Pay attention, kids. This one’s got your back.

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