BTWHS Teacher Selected for Gates Foundation’s Teacher Advisory Council

Booker T. Washington High School for Engineering Professions teacher Dr. Nghia Le has been selected by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help in their efforts to dramatically increase the number of U.S. students who graduate from high school ready for college and careers. In mid July, Le will join a select group of about 40 other teachers from around the U.S who were handpicked to form the foundation’s Teacher Advisory Council.

“I am extremely honored and humbled that I was selected for this amazing opportunity,” Le said. “I look forward to sharing my own thoughts and gaining the wisdom and best practices of other highly effective teachers from around the country.”

Members of the Gates Foundation’s Teacher Advisory Council will support the development and review of strategies, share their own insight on how to translate a vision into implementation in schools, and provide feedback and perspective as they participate and lead the work to influence the future of public education. Le was nominated for the council by his school principal and by district leaders.

“Dr. Le is an extraordinary educator,” said Washington High School Principal LaShonda Bilbo-Ervin. “Our students are involved in groundbreaking research due to his ability to embrace professional development. His participation on this council will allow him to learn and share the best ideas with teachers from around the country. I am thrilled about the impact this will have on the students at Washington.”

Le was also selected to participate in the NASA/MIT ICED 2012 Mars Habitat Design Challenge. This month he, along with select group of college professors and high school teachers, will spend a week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developing high school level engineering content and curriculum related to Mars habitat design. That curriculum will then be used with Washington students during the 2012-2013 school year.

“MIT has some of the best and brightest scientists and engineers in the country,” Le said. ‘To be able to have access to their minds and to the university’s resources along with NASA is only going to make me a better teacher. If I learn more, then in turn my students will be able to learn more.”