SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today saluted the selection of a fourth exceptional California educator to receive the 2003 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award.  

Nader I. Twal is a teacher at Millikan High School in the Long Beach Unified School District in Long Beach. (Information on the winner is attached.)  This brings the total to four California teachers who have received the Awards since October 16, 2003.

"Mr. Twal's commitment to helping students read is an inspiration, and shows the rest of us what is good about education in California," said O'Connell. "His students are not only improving their skills, but they're also learning that reading and writing can be fun."

Twal was surprised with the announcement at an assembly at his school today where it was announced that he had been selected for the prestigious honor that comes with a monetary award of $25,000. Recipients may use the money as they wish.

The Milken National Educator Awards are given to teachers and principals relatively new to education. Twal has been teaching for about six years. Nationwide, teachers and principals in 47 states will receive the Milken honor this month. All were selected based on the following criteria:

• Exceptional educational talent as evidenced by outstanding instructional practices in the classroom, school, and profession;
• Outstanding accomplishments and strong long-range potential for professional and policy leadership; and
• Engaging and inspiring presence that motivates and impacts students, colleagues, and the community.

Experts agree that the need to attract more quality teachers is urgent because the demographics and incentives of the 21st century may make it difficult for many individuals to choose education as a career. Currently, California employs 302,000 teachers. Over the next 10 years, schools nationwide will need to hire 2.2 million new teachers, but are expected to come up short by about 40 percent. As many as 300,000 more teachers will be needed in the next decade in California.

"If our children are to make a better future for themselves, then we must address the critical need for qualified teachers," said O'Connell. "That's the only way we can assure our children get a good education. The Milken National Educator Awards are instrumental in helping us achieve that goal, as well as help raise the consciousness about the importance of education in our society."

In addition to the $25,000, Twal will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. in May for the annual Milken Family Foundation National Education Conference. For more information, please contact the Milken Family Foundation's Web site at http://www.mff.org (Outside Source).

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Nader I. Twal teaches at Millikan High School in Long Beach Unified School District in Long Beach.   In his first year at the school, he was assigned a diverse class of struggling readers. Because of his intuitive talent, he was selected to write and teach a course outline and pacing chart for a "Literacy Workshop" that was eventually adopted district-wide. As a result of his instruction, his students regularly showed impressive growth. He volunteers his time to write curriculum and work on an academy design for the very large campus of 4200-plus students. Mr. Twal sees the need for students to be a part of a small learning community and to have an adult mentor. He took on a leadership role in designing and implementing a peace academy with a focus on international negotiations. Mr. Twal creates student-centered, standards-based lessons. Daily lessons are spelled out on an overhead projector along with accompanying objectives. Students work in groups and serve as peer editors, peer coaches, and peer evaluators. He engages them in reading where they learn to navigate through articles in magazines such as Time, and then they create their own articles. Colleagues say he generates "electricity" and that he has the attention of 100% of his students 100% of the time.