CoCo Teacher To Represent CA At National Competition

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA — Northgate High School teacher Rosie Reid will represent California in the National Teacher of the Year competition, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced Tuesday. Reid will be the only teacher representing California, and the first teacher from Contra Costa County to represent the state in the national competition since 1998. The competition will take place in the spring.

Reid has been teaching for 16 years, the last two at Northgate in Walnut Creek. She has taught every level of high school English and is part of the English Learner Review Team to monitor English learners and mentor teachers. Most recently, she founded and leads an equity task force at her high school.

“I strive to be a status quo disruptor and an agent of social justice, while engaging in a rigorous, standards-based English curriculum. So often teachers feel that if they are thinking about issues of equity and implicit bias, they must compromise rigor in order for all students to be successful; in fact it is by helping our most socially marginalized students develop literacy (and numeracy) skills that we may achieve social equity,” said Reid.

“Ms. Reid does not just teach English. She inspires us to become involved in our community, to relate curriculum to larger world issues, and to express ourselves by articulating our ideas through writing and public speaking,” said student Lark Chang-Yeh.

“We are very excited for Rosie, for Northgate High School and for the Mt. Diablo Unified School District,” said Karen Sakata, Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools, who called it an incredible honor for Reid.

Reid and other Teacher of the Year honorees will be recognized by Torlakson at a gala to be held in Sacramento on Dec. 10.

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— Image via Contra Costa County Office of Education