POLICY REGARDING THE SELECTION OF
NATIONAL TEACHER HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
Objective: To select annually the number of inductees determined by the Board of Directors who meet the highest standards of professionalism and classroom practice.
Step One: The Board of Directors determines the number of inductees to be selected.
Step Two: The Director of Recognition and Induction of the NTHF sets the date and identifies the members of the local screening committee to review the application forms submitted by that year’s nominees.
Step Three: Local screening committee members are invited to serve.
Step Four: Once the screening committee members have agreed to serve, the total number of applications are divided among them and sent to them for their evaluation.
Step Five: Screening committee members evaluate each application based upon a point range (10 to 1, ten being the highest) for each section of the application. Then, they calculate a total.
Step Six: The Director of Recognition and Induction will appoint a local screening committee chair. The local screening committee meets on a day and at a time designated by the chair of the screening committee. At that meeting, the following sequence is observed:
1. The chair assembles the score sheets and ranks the nominees
according to totals provided by the committee members.
2. The top twenty-five are discussed; and unless there is a consensus
otherwise, an agreed upon number, up to 40, are referred to the Director of
Recognition and Induction of the NTHF to be sent to the national selection
committee.
Step Seven: The NTHF Staff send copies of the nominations to each member of the national screening committee, along with score sheets and instructions for evaluating them.
Step Eight: On the day and at the time designated by the Director of Recognition and Induction of the NTHF, the national screening committee convenes in Washington, DC, to select five finalists and five runners-up to be referred to the Board of Directors for their approval.
Step Nine: The national selection committee meets for one to two days to make their selections. Once convened, the national selection committee will elect a chair. The Director of Recognition and Induction of the NTHF, or designee, will serve on the committee as an ex-officio, non-voting member. The selection committee will follow this sequence in making its selection:
- The national selection committee will elect a member to serve as chair.
- Each member will reveal to the full committee his/her top ten, according to his/her prior evaluation of the applications. The NTHF secretary will record for all to see the names of those who make a top-ten-list, and a tally of those who receive more than one vote will be noted next to the names.
- Beginning with the nominee who has received the largest number of votes, each nominee on the list will be discussed by the group. If the chair believes that members are beginning to repeat themselves or wander from the stated discussion, he/she may institute a time limit for the discussion of each.
- Once members of the committee are satisfied that the discussion is complete to that point, another vote is taken. Again, the NTHF secretary records and tallies votes. Following the vote, the nominees are ranked in order.
- Those receiving the ten largest number of votes, or fewer than ten if the chair determines that there is considerable distance between the number of votes of the top so-many and those below, will be ranked in order.
- Those ten, or fewer, will be discussed according to the strategy described in #2 above.
- Another vote will be taken, and the top five will become the teachers referred to the Board of Directors for induction into the National Teachers Hall of Fame for that year.
- Then, a number 6 and a number 7 will be voted from the remaining top ten. Number six (6) will be the 1st alternate, should one of the five be unable to accept in person the award. Number seven (7) will be the second alternate. Numbers eight (8), nine (9), and ten (10) will be selected in turn for the same reasons.
- The national selection committee will determine when to view nominee videos and/or dvd’s.
Step Ten: Due diligence contacts will be made by NTHF staff to the school districts of each of the five selected teachers. If the due diligence contact documents reasons for not inducting a candidate into the NTHF, the first alternate will replace this individual.
Step Eleven: These final five and their alternates will then be taken by the Director of Recognition and Induction of the NTHF to the Board of Directors for their approval.
Step Twelve: The Board of Directors, meeting in their regularly scheduled meeting in March, will review the recommendations of the national selection committee and make the final approval. If they disapprove one or more of the recommended “five,” the first alternate will become one of the five teachers who will be inducted.
The decision of the Board of Directors shall be final, and the NTHF staff shall be directed to proceed with the appropriate media and other releases.
MEMBERS OF THE LOCAL SCREENING COMMITTEE
QUALIFICATIONS FOR NOMINEES
There shall be from three to five members on the local screening committee. One shall act as chair.
The local screening committee will reject nominations that do not meet the following criteria:
1. certification/licensure
by the state in which they teach
2. a
minimum of twenty years experience as a classroom teacher
3. a minimum of a bachelor’s
degree from an accredited higher education institution
4. the
ability to be present at the induction ceremony to receive the award
5. the
absence of any felony conviction
In addition, any nominee or selected inductee who supplies false information shall be immediately disqualified.
Any nominee who does not send in the complete application, with all requirements, by the stated deadline shall be disqualified.
Any nominee whose application does not adhere to the directions, including minimum and maximum limits on submissions, shall be disqualified.
MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL SELECTION COMMITTEE
Director, Recognition and Induction, National Teachers Hall of Fame, non-voting, ex-officio
Two National Teachers Hall of Fame members (One from the most recent class inducted and one representing each class on a rotating schedule)
Representatives from national educational associations / press
Corporate sponsor representatives