Milken Educator Impact: Share Your Success invites our network of nearly 2,500 Milken Educators to capture on video the Award’s impact on their professional careers, as well their own impact on education since receiving the honor. Videos will be featured on the Milken Educator Awards website and YouTube channel, and entered in a random drawing for an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2011 Milken Educator Forum this spring at the Loew’s Santa Monica Beach Hotel! To learn how Milken Educators can submit videos, click here.
Hailed as the “Oscars of Teaching” by Teacher Magazine, the Milken Educator Awards were launched by education reform leader Lowell Milken in 1987 to celebrate, elevate and activate exemplary K-12 educators. Over the years, the Awards have been instrumental in communicating to parents and policy makers alike the proven fact that the quality of the teacher in the classroom is by far the most important school-based factor in determining student achievement.
Today, the Milken Educator Awards is the nation’s preeminent teacher recognition program, having honored more than 2,400 K-12 teachers, principals and specialists coast to coast with more than $60 million in individual, unrestricted $25,000 awards. Recipients are heralded in early to mid-career for what they have achieved… and for the promise of what they will accomplish in the future.
Unlike most teacher award programs, the Milken Educator Awards has no formal nomination or application process. Every participating state’s department of education appoints an independent blue ribbon committee to recommend candidates according to strict criteria, with final selections made by the Milken Family Foundation.
In the fall, when the surprise notifications are made during all-school assemblies—filled with cheering students, proud colleagues, an entourage of distinguished officials and the media—each new Milken Educator is stunned. In a moment’s time, these unsung heroes gain a significant financial prize and experience the unfamiliar but well-deserved acclaim they rightly merit.
Come spring, new recipients convene at the Milken Educator Forum in Santa Monica, CA, to explore their roles and responsibilities in building teacher effectiveness and sharing innovative strategies that powerfully impact students. Recipients are also inducted into the national Milken Educator Network, dedicated to reforming and strengthening American K-12 education because, as the watchwords of the Milken Educator Awards proclaim, The future belongs to the educated.
