Teaching & Learning>Instructional Awards

Winning is as easy as One, Two, Three

TSTA has an award program to recognize local associations for their level of activity and involvement in their school districts and in TSTA.  Known as the TSTA Instructional Award, the program actually consists of three different levels of achievement:

1. the Instructional Award

2. the Executive Director’s Award; and

3. the President’s Award

The purpose of this awards program is three-fold:  (1) to recognize local associations for activity and accomplishments; (2) to encourage all locals to enhance their level of activity and accomplishment; and (3) to incorporate certain strands of the NEA’s Priority Schools Initiative into local association planning.

The Instructional Awards Program is a non-competitive program in which local associations are recognized for the quality of their local association program and their accomplishments.  To be eligible to receive an Instructional Award, the local association must meet three criteria.

1. Submit a local association plan to TSTA’s Center for Teaching and Learning by November 1 of the school year.  This plan should include activities the local association intends to accomplish in one or more areas of the Priority Schools Initiative.  It should also include the level of award the local is seeking.

2. Complete the planned activities by March 1.

3. Submit documentation that shows the planned activities were completed to the Center for Teaching and Learning.  Documentation must be postmarked by March 15.

Local associations who meet the criteria will be recognized at the TSTA House of Delegates in April.

All instructional award activities must address at least one strand of the NEA’s Priority School Initiative. These strands are: teacher quality; student achievement; and school capacity. Criteria for award levels are as follows:

Instructional Award – local associations must complete at least three activities in one of strand of the Priority Schools Initiative;

Executive Director’s Award – local associations must complete at least three activities in one strand of the Priority Schools Initiative and at least one activity in each of the other two strands;

President’s Award – local associations must complete at least three activities in one strand of the Priority Schools Initiative and at least two activities in each of the other two strands.

Instructional Awards will be given with distinction to those local associations that also show a ten percent increase in association membership or a 25% increase in PAC contributions or PAC Continuing Contributors.

The documentation submitted to the Center for Teaching and Learning must be available for display at the TSTA HoD.  It can be in any of the following formats:

• Videos

• Newspaper Articles

• Newsletters

• CD-ROMS

• Websites

• or other medium that can be put on display.

Judges for the award will be the TSTA Vice-President; the Chair and Vice-Chair of TSTA’s Community and Instructional Activity Committee; and professional staff from the Center of Teaching and Learning.  The judges’ responsibility is to ensure that the documentation submitted by the local association satisfies the plan submitted by the local association.

For more information, call 877-ASK-TSTA and ask for Teaching and Learning.