When Permian High School history/social studies teacher Robert Brescia saw the fireworks on his computer screen on an early December morning, he was elated.
Brescia was one of five Ector County ISD teachers to earn certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Niki Bradshaw, Exceptional Need Specialist (SPED), at Buice Elementary, David Cupp, Exceptional Needs Specialist (GT), Advanced Academic Services, Christi Nickels, generalist – middle childhood at Cavazos Elementary, and Shelly Wagner, English language arts-adolescence to young adulthood at OCTECHS, also earned the designation.
“I was excited and really was happy about it because I didn’t know what would happen, whether I would make the grade or not, because the program really is tough,” Brescia said. “What they do is they have a fixed date that they release the results and I think that was December the 9th. … You go to your computer and you open up their website and the deal is if you see fireworks on the screen, you know you’re there. I went to the computer … it was about 7 in the morning. I open up the site; all these fireworks start going and I thought: I did it; I did it; I made it and I just sat there and watched the fireworks for the longest time.”
“And then I went in to see what the grades were, those details and things,” he added.
Brescia, who was executive director of the John Ben Shepperd Leadership Institute, has been with ECISD since November 2019 and has been in education since 2009. He had taught before that at the early college high school level, in the military and was president and CEO of the St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville.
He decided to go for National Board certification in part because he was inspired by Superintendent Scott Muri who had earned the recognition in North Carolina, which has the highest number of National Board certified teachers in the country, according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards website.
“I think a lot of Scott and his leadership. We both serve together at SBEC (State Board for Educator Certification). He was the one that told everybody about the program that he had gone through, the National Board program. He wanted to get excitement going here about the program. I read it and I thought wow that could be something very interesting that could help me as a teacher. Then the campus principal at Permian, Dr. Delesa Styles, and the Associate Principal for Academics Johna Straw, they served as support people,” Brescia said.
His colleagues and family also supported him.
“I had to do a lot of nights and weekends. Nights were Zoom calls with other people who were going through the program; weekends they would get us out there on a local campus somewhere to work on stuff and listen to people who had gone through the program. They took a tremendous amount of time outside the normal, so I thank my family because I couldn’t give them enough family time,” Brescia said.
He pointed to three benefits of the program.
“One is for the teacher, of course, making teachers all that they can possibly be and extend the belief in themselves, in knowing their students. That’s what it’s all about … It’s very transformative for a teacher. The central focus is knowing your students and being able to use what teachers call differentiation, which is if you have 30 students in a class, all 30 of them are certainly not the same person. They’re all coming from different backgrounds and they are starting at different starting points and levels. Therefore, you have to differentiate your instruction. Many teachers try to do that. There are some successes here and there and some failures here and there, but this program teaches you more about the great ways to do that,” Brescia said.
Second is the impact on students. Students are 31 percent more likely to achieve proficiency on kindergarten readiness assessments. He noted that kindergarten readiness is important to Muri and it’s a point where ECISD has made improvements.
“If you have NBCT teachers in the kindergarten, those kids are going to be 31 percent more likely to achieve proficiency,” Brescia said. “So as we build the NBCT pool here at ECISD, you’re going to see benefits and impact there.”
Also, 11 percent of students more likely to gain proficiency in third grade on an English language arts MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) test.
“Those are just national stats. They’re indicative, though, of what can be achieved,” Brescia said.
He added that this dovetails with what they’re trying to do at the State Board for Educator Certification.
“We always look at ways to lessen the attrition of teachers. We don’t want them to go bye-bye if they are very good teachers. We want them to stay in the profession, so NBCT teachers have an attrition rate that’s three times lower than regular teachers currently,” Brescia said.
“Texas ranks No. 26 of all of the states for the total number of National Board Certified Teachers. This is not a ratio against the number of students; it’s just a total raw number, so 26, we’re in the middle of the pack. There are 1,069 of us NBCT teachers running around in Texas and I’m so proud to be a part” of that, he added.
Third, he said, is the impact to the school system.
“The lower the income in the pool of students, the more impact an NBCT teacher seems to have on the students. So let’s contrast that with an affluent suburb somewhere in the United States with rich kids or well-to-do families. I think an NBCT teacher would have more of an impact in a district like ours than he or she would in another location,” Brescia said.
He added that he would put the program on par with doctoral programs. Brescia has a doctorate.
“I thought that was about the toughest academic thing I would ever undertake. This one is different, but nevertheless, the discipline and the rigor of the program is extraordinary. They don’t cut you any breaks. The grading is tough. You’ve got to put your nose to the grindstone, so to speak. I feel fortunate to have made it though. It took two years well spent and I look forward to applying everything that I have learned in the classroom and then finally to get other teachers excited at Permian and elsewhere in the district when I speak to my colleagues and try to tell them look this is doable. You can do it. I’m a believer in the program,” Brescia said.
He and his wife Marianne have three children and four grandchildren.
Styles, the principal at PHS, said in an email that Brescia is to be commended for earning such an elite certification. “It truly distinguishes him as a top-notch educator. He wears many hats at Permian High School, including serving as Social Studies Department Chair. He is well-respected by his colleagues and his students enjoy his classes because he’s innovative and genuinely strives to connect and build relationships with each student. We are so fortunate to have him on our team and we’re so proud of him!”
