Education Department Seeks Nominations for "American Stars of Teaching" Program

The U.S. Department of Education again plans to honor classroom teachers by recognizing the 2005 American Stars of Teaching. The Department's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative is seeking nominations and information about teachers who are improving student achievement, using innovative strategies, and making a difference in the lives of their students. Teachers across all grade levels and disciplines will be honored this fall. One teacher or team of teachers from each state will be recognized.

Last fall the Department recognized 56 teachers as American Stars in Teaching from such diverse schools as Loma Vista Intermediate School in Riverside, California, and Mesa Elementary in Shiprock, New Mexico. In 2004 honored teachers included Tamara Rhone of Denver, Colorado, whose Advanced Placement classes feature many minority students; Angie Miller of Junction City, Kansas, who raised the math achievement of her middle-schoolers; and chemistry teacher-extraordinaire Doug Worthley of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

To learn more or nominate a teacher to become an American Star of Teaching, please visit the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative Web site at: http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/index.html. Nomination forms are posted there. Additionally, readers may be interested in seeing the profiles of four of last year's honored teachers from the Department's Feb. 1 issue of The Achiever, which is posted online at: http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/achiever/2005/020105.html.