2019 Elementary Mathematics Specialist Scholarship Recipient
Rachel Barrong Aazzerah
Portland, Oregon
Biography
Rachel Barrong Aazzerah has been in the field of science and math education for 20 years. She graduated with her Bachelors of Science degree in General Science/Chemistry from Oregon State University in 1999, she completed her Initial Teaching Licensure program in 2000 from Oregon State University and then completed her Masters of Science degree in Science and Math Education at Oregon State University in 2003. While at Oregon State University, she served as an undergraduate teaching assistant and taught the recitation for the Mathematics for Elementary Education series (MTH 211, 212 and 213). She is licensed to teach Biology, Chemistry, Integrated Science, Foundational Mathematics, Middle School Multiple Level and Physics in the State of Oregon at the pk-12 level. For thirteen years she taught multiple levels of both math and science in public and private middle and high schools in Oregon, before serving as the Science and Social Sciences Assessment Specialist at the Oregon Department of Education.
This position led her to her love of elementary and secondary math again by becoming the interim Math Assessment Specialist at the Oregon Department of Education. During her interim period, she was heavily involved in the development of both summative and formative assessment tools around the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) and with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. She has provided training for educators in the State of Oregon and across the nation on how to design and implement rigorous, CCSS-M aligned assessment items and performance tasks in their classrooms. Having also been involved as a Science Assessment Specialist during the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), she also served almost two years at the American Institutes for Research as a Senior Manager of Test Development for NGSS in Washington D.C. She is now back in her home state of Oregon, currently serving as a middle school (grades 6-8) STEAM/Math Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) for Portland Public Schools.