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.

Upcoming Awards

April 15

Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching Program

Applicants apply as dyads—teacher and teacher educator partners complete one application together.

May 1

James R. Squire Award
Established in 1967, this award recognized outstanding service to the stature and development of NCTE and ELA education, as well as the education profession as a whole, in the U.S. and internationally. Awardees are honored by a selection committee of NCTE Past Presidents.

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. It supports members who advocate for policies and practices that influence and advance the understanding of equity and antiracism.

NCTE Leadership Award for People with Disabilities
This award recognizes a person with a disability who has made a significant contribution to NCTE and to the development of our professional community. Recipients promote and support the advancement of people with disabilities in our profession through their service, writing, teaching, scholarship, and professional development.

NCTE LGBTQIA+ Advocacy & Leadership Award
This award recognizes a member of the LGBTQIA+ community who has made a significant contribution to NCTE through service, scholarship, and actions that promote and support the advancement of the LGBTQIA+ community in the profession, in literacy-related activities, and in public engagement.

George Orwell Award
The NCTE George Orwell Award, established in 1975 and administered by the NCTE Public Language Award Committee, recognizes people who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse.

NCTE National Intellectual Freedom Award
Established in 1997 by NCTE and Support for the Learning and Teaching of English (SLATE)–this award is given to a person, groups, or institutions for advancing the cause of intellectual freedom. A subcommittee of the NCTE Committee Against Censorship selects the recipients.

Media Literacy Award
This award showcases NCTE members who have developed innovative approaches for integrating media analysis and composition into their instruction.

NCTE Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing
This award annually recognizes teachers in grades K–6 who, through the teaching of writing, demonstrate an understanding of student improvement in writing. Applicants submit a reflective essay and student writing to be considered. Learn more and apply.

NCTE Outstanding Elementary Educator in the English Language Arts Award
Elementary educator nominees, including classroom teachers, for this award must have dramatically influenced preK–6 literacy classroom practice, made ongoing contributions to the field of literacy, obtained national and/or international influence in literacy teaching and learning, and contributed a body of work that is compatible with the mission of NCTE. Learn more and nominate yourself or a colleague.

NCTE Outstanding Middle Level Educator in the English Language Arts Award
This award recognizes 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. Nominees should be full-time English language arts teachers of students in grades 6–8 (“full-time” is defined as that school district’s standard number of contact hours with students) who have taught for at least five years in a public or private school in the United States, its territories, or Canada. Learn more and nominated yourself or a colleague.

Conference on English Leadership (CEL) Emerging Leaders Fellowship (ELF) Program

This program provides leadership support, mentoring, and networking opportunities for early career leaders of language arts programs at the K–university levels.

Ongoing

Children’s Book Awards nominations are accepted until October 15 each year for the Charlotte Huck Award® for Outstanding Fiction, the Orbis Pictus Award® for nonfiction, and the Notable Poetry Books and Verse Novels list.