Award for Educational Innovation

 

Call for Nominations

The Award for Educational Innovation (formerly the Jack London Award for Educational Innovation) celebrates good ideas and great programs and the people who make them happen in our local schools. Representatives from Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Solano, Lake, and Mendocino Counties are invited to nominate innovative programs for this honor. Programs may serve students from birth up to 22 years old, participating in preschool, elementary, middle or high school programs, in settings where the cultural, linguistic, racial, and socioeconomic populations are representative of the diversity in the state of California, either as part of the school day or as an extracurricular program.

The nomination deadline for 2024 was Friday, February 16th.

Since the program began back in 1988, the Award for Educational Innovation has every year drawn the local education community together to meet and recognize the individuals responsible for innovative and creative work happening in our local schools. Learn about past programs that received the award.

Goals of the Program

  • To recognize and publicize outstanding innovative programs within a school and the individuals responsible for them.

  • To project a positive image of education.

Who May Apply?

This award is open to all pre-schools, elementary, middle schools, junior high and high schools in Sonoma, Marin, Lake, Mendocino, Napa or Solano County.

Criteria for judging include:

  • Original vision and impetus for the program

  • Innovative and creative approaches that promote equity and issues surrounding social justice. 

  • Engages teachers and school community collaboratively

  • The impact of this program on students and how it might be adaptable to other settings

How is the selection made?

SSU faculty serve as judges for this award program. The Scholarship and Awards Committee makes final selection of award recipients after site observations of the chosen semi-finalists.

This award is made on an annual basis to programs that have made an exemplary contribution to education through development of an innovative educational program in Sonoma, Marin, Lake, Mendocino, Napa or Solano county schools. The chosen schools will receive a gift certificate, a certificate of recognition, and a set of books for small group student enrichment.

Note: Programs that have previously received the Award are not eligible to win a second time.