Meet Founder and Lead Coach:
Rachel Howard de Cuevas, M.Ed., NBCT, is a passionate bilingual and bicultural educator dedicated to helping teachers step into their power, elevate their practice, and achieve the highest professional milestone in our field—National Board Certification.
Her unique coaching speciality is: coaching for English as a New Language candidates. She also works with National Board Candidates in other all other Certification Areas. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the NB process as a National Board Assessor for English as a New Language-Component 3. Assessing portfolios gives her a unique perspective on how accomplished teaching is demonstrated in portfolio entries.
Based in the Washington, DC suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland, Rachel brings over 20 years of experience teaching learners from Pre-K through adult education. Her work is grounded in educational equity, language access, and the belief that transformative teaching begins with meaningful relationships and values-driven practice.
Rachel has taught in both the United States and Latin America, serving in roles ranging from classroom teacher to math specialist to reading interventionist—and now as a Multilingual Learner teacher supporting culturally and linguistically diverse students. Her wide-ranging experience gives her a deep, practical understanding of what accomplished teaching looks like across content areas, grade levels, and school communities.
In addition to NBC assessing, coaching and teaching, Rachel is a consultant for WIDA assessment items, CAL Center for Applied Linguistics to review assessments and Maryland State Department of Education to evaluate High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) for linguistically diverse student populations. She is proud to be a speaker at both local and national conferences, presenting her multilingual teaching expertise. 2026 appearances to include: DC Reading League Practitioners Conference, MD-TESOL conference and the National WIDA Conference.
As a National Board Certified Teacher in English as a New Language and a National Board Assessor for English as a New Language Component 3, Rachel brings rare insight into how accomplished teaching is evaluated. She knows exactly what strong evidence looks like—and how to help candidates uncover it in their own practice.
Teachers who work with Rachel describe her coaching as:
–Clear and structured – You always know your next step
–Warm, encouraging, and deeply human – You’ll feel supported, not judged
–Multilingual and culturally rooted – Bringing her bilingual (Spanish/English) and bicultural knowledge to her clients.
–Hands-on and practical – Real templates, real tools, real progress
–Transformational – You leave sessions more confident, grounded, and capable
Whether you choose 1:1 coaching or small-group cohort support, Rachel becomes your bridge—your puente—to clarity, confidence, and a process that feels purposeful and clear.
In addition to coaching NBC candidates, Rachel regularly attends and presents at regional and national education conferences (MDTESOL, VATESOL, WIDA, NCTE, NCTM). She knows how important it is for NBC coaches to stay abreast of the latest best practices in education to ensure her candidates get high-quality coaching from an education expert!
Have a question that’s not covered by the form? I’d love to hear from you:
PuenteNBCTCoaching@gmail.com