Awards

Each year NCTE celebrates more than 90 different awards across our various constituencies.

These awards shine a light on the exceptional work of our educators and students and offer myriad opportunities to recognize and elevate what makes the teaching and learning of English language arts so powerful.

2016 Winners

Upcoming Awards

April 30: Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award

This award is to supports early career teachers of color as they build accomplished teaching careers in literacy education.

May 1: NCTE Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing

This award recognizes teachers in grades K-6 who, through the teaching of writing, demonstrate an understanding of student improvement in writing.

May 1: Outstanding Middle Level Educator Award

An award for exceptional English language arts teachers of grades 6-8 who have demonstrated excellence in teaching English language arts and inspired a spirit of inquiry and a love of learning in their students.

May 1: CCCC Outstanding Book Award

Presented annually for work in the field of composition and rhetoric.

May 1: ELATE James N. Britton Award

To encourage English Language Arts teacher development, consistent with the major goal of ELATE, by promoting classroom-based research in which teachers at any educational level raise questions about teaching and learning in their own teaching/learning settings.

May 20: ELATE Geneva Smitherman Cultural Diversity Grant

This grant offers up to two $500 awards for first-time NCTE Conference presenters who are members of groups historically underrepresented in NCTE and ELATE.

May 30: NCTE and Penguin Random House Teacher Awards

The National Teacher Award for Lifelong Readers honors a teacher who inspires their students to read all genres of writing; the Maya Angelou Teacher Award for Poetry will honor Ms. Angelou’s legacy by recognizing a teacher who inspires their students to love poetry.

June 1: NCTE Leadership Award for People with Disabilities

This new NCTE award recognizes a person with a disability who has made a significant contribution to the Council and to the development of our professional community. This award intends to include mental, physical, sensory, and other disabilities.

June 1: NCTE LGBTQ+ Advocacy & Leadership Award

This new NCTE award recognizes a member of the LGBTQ+ community who has made a significant contribution to the Council through their service, scholarship, and actions that promote and support the advancement of the LGBTQ+community in the profession, in literacy-related activities, and in public engagement, creating a culture of change.

June 1: NCTE Advancement of People of Color Leadership Award
This award is given to an NCTE member of color who has made a significant contribution to NCTE and the development of our professional community. People of color refers to historically underrepresented groups: African American, American Indians, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Pacific Islanders.

June 1: Distinguished Service Award

The award recognizes a person or persons who have exhibited valuable professional service to the profession, scholarly or academic distinction, distinctive use of the language, and excellence in teaching.