News

Friday, June 11, 2010

Jaime DeVries named 2010-11 Santa Barbara County Distinguished Educator

Excerpt from a Santa Barbara County Education Office news release

James DeVries, a 12th grade government, economics, and history teacher at San Marcos High School in the Santa Barbara Secondary School District, was named 2010-11 Santa Barbara County Distinguished Educator by County Superintendent of Schools William J. Cirone during the monthly meeting of the county board of education June 10.

Distinguished Educators comprise a category formed to acknowledge outstanding teachers in Santa Barbara County. The designation is only given when merited; it is not necessarily awarded annually.

The award was created as an outgrowth of the annual county Teacher of the Year award. This year, the selection committee, which included representatives of teachers, administrators, PTAs, and school boards, expressed strong feelings that the application and credentials of DeVries were clearly Teacher-of-the-Year caliber. The committee members could only select one teacher to represent the county for the State Teacher of the Year award; but members felt strongly they should similarly acknowledge the excellence of this outstanding educator.

Marilyn Garza, a science teacher at Santa Barbara Junior High School, was named County Teacher of the Year in May.

James DeVries has been teaching all levels of American government, economics and U.S. history at Marcos High School for 11 years. He has taught senior social studies courses including AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, Introduction to Economics, Fundamentals of Economics, and College Prep American Government.

He earned his B.A. in economics and business from Westmont College and received his credential from Chapman University. When he started teaching at San Marcos, after a year at Santa Ynez High, there was only one section of AP Government and none of Economics. The first year that he was able to teach an AP Economics class, 33 of his 34 students passed the AP exams. There are now three sections of both AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomic, in addition to AP Government.

DeVries has led Advanced Placement workshops statewide and has presented at various social studies and history seminars, symposia, and workshops.

To read to complete news release, go to: http://www.sbceo.org/news-info/6-10-10.shtml