Teaching Tolerance Seeks Nominations to Honor Educators for Culturally Responsive Teaching

This is the second year the award will be given to honor educators who have demonstrated excellence in teaching diverse students.

“In an increasingly diverse world, it is important for teachers to have the skills to reach every student in the classroom and close the achievement gap,” said Teaching Tolerance Director Maureen Costello. “This awards program recognizes teachers who excel at teaching students from diverse backgrounds in a way that promotes student achievement.”

Teaching Tolerance will present the 2012 Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching Award to five outstanding teachers at an event in Washington, D.C.in January. In addition to the awards presentation, the event will include panel discussions by prominent education experts as well as teacher awardees and accomplished practitioners.

The deadline for applications is April 30. All teachers within the United States are eligible to apply.

The winners will be selected through a rigorous review process by an expert panel of teachers and researchers. Each winning educator will be presented with an award of $1,000.

Prior to the event in January, the teacher awardees will be videotaped in their classrooms to share their models of effective teaching with other educators across the nation.

For 20 years, Teaching Tolerance has been dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation’s children. It provides anti-bias education resources to teachers across the country through Teaching Tolerance magazine, multimedia teaching kits, online curricula, professional development resources and classroom-friendly social justice documentaries. These materials are provided to educators at no cost.