The American Consortium for Equity in Education has selected 47 education industry companies, products, and leaders as award winners in 25 categories
WASHINGTON, D.C.―January 22, 2024―We are pleased to announce that Teachstone was selected as a winner in the inaugural Excellence in Equity Awards program presented by the American Consortium for Equity in Education.
Honoring the industry contributors — companies, products, leaders, nonprofits, and more — whose work supports success and equitable achievement for educators and students, this competitive awards program received more than 120 nominations from across the U.S. Of the nominees, 88 were selected as finalists, and on December 14, 2023, 47 were announced as winners.
The awards were created to acknowledge, spotlight, and celebrate high-impact work across K-12 education, as well as expand and enhance the discussion around educational equity. After the judges’ review, the winning nominees were identified as those whose exemplary contributions stood out among a strong field.
At Teachstone, commitments to equity are not just words on a website. As noted by CEO and Co-Founder Bridget Hamre, “We’ve invested millions of dollars in the last few years to ensure that our products and services best meet the needs of every child and every educator we serve. And just as important as what we do is how we do it. Our core value is committing to the equity and empowerment of all, and that starts with doing the hard work to make sure we recruit, retain, and support a diverse and inclusive workforce. That work is never done, but this award is an important recognition of an important step in our journey toward a moment in which every child, regardless of background, experiences the life-changing interactions they need to thrive in school and in life.”
This work resulted in CLASS 2nd Edition. This enhanced tool keeps the focus on interactions while making critical updates, resulting in clearer use of the tool across settings, increased consistency of scoring, and strategies to combat bias. To support clarity, Second Edition bakes in the guidance into materials, making the scoring practices that have been implicit, explicit.
CLASS 2nd Edition also takes into account different settings in which children learn and grow. It describes what interactions may look like in Family Child Care programs, Dual Language settings, and among programs serving children with disabilities. We also know interactions happen in the unique context of the educators and children who are being observed: their genders, their locations, their cultures, and more.
“To start, I want to thank not only our winners, but each of our nominees and finalists, as well, for their contributions to educational access and equity,” said Ross Romano, strategic advisor to the Consortium and program chair of the Excellence in Equity Awards. “It’s due to these daily efforts that schools, educators, and students are able to succeed. It’s been a thrill to see the growing interest in our awards program — which I believe indicates the growing commitment companies are making to innovative equity initiatives — and I congratulate all our winners for work that was truly exemplary this year.”
Each winner will receive a variety of benefits, including a badge to display on official materials; the opportunity to be featured on EduTalk Radio, the Consortium’s flagship podcast; a spotlight feature in the January special issue of the Access & Equity PreK-12 Journal dedicated to award winners; and an invitation to write for the online journal.
To learn more about the winners in all categories, visit www.ace-ed.org/awards.
About the Excellence in Equity Awards
The Excellence in Equity Awards program recognizes the companies, nonprofits, leaders, and educators whose work contributes to the critical goal of ensuring access and equity for every learner. Learn more at www.ace-ed.org/awards.
About Teachstone
Teachstone is a leader in the field of education from birth to 12th grade. Its CLASS tool measures and improves interactions between teachers and students, with the vision of ensuring that everyone experiences life-changing teaching. For more information, please visit teachstone.com.