WISNIEWSKI AWARD

The Wisniewski Teacher Education Award of The Society of Professors of Education (SPE) is presented annually to recognize and honor an outstanding teacher education program at a college or university. The purpose of the Award, as created by the SPE Board, is to select and honor, each year, an institution which has made a significant contributions to the theory and practice of teacher education. The criteria used by the Wisniewski Committee focus specifically on the integration of theory and practice, strength of foundational study, and effective innovation in the field of teacher education. The annual recipient is selected by the SPE’s Wisniewski Teacher Education Award Committee, based on nominations from the teacher education community and/or self-nominations.  The Award is named for Richard Wisniewski, a past president and treasurer of SPE, the former Dean of the College of Education at University of Tennessee, and Past President of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.

Application Requirements:
A description of the program that identifies its core principles, key ideas that were used as foundations for developing the program, and examples of how these principles are manifested in courses and field experiences (no more than 2-4 pages, suggested).

Please send nominations via email to committee chair Rob Helfenbein (helfenbein_rj@mercer.edu) no later than February 1, 2024.

Wisniewski Award Recipients

Loyola University Maryland, M.A. Program in Curriculum and Instruction for Social Justice, 2024

Technology in Teacher Education program at Texas A&M University, 2023

Curriculum & Instruction Program, F. Todd Goodson, Kansas State University, 2022

Language & Literacy Program, Texas Christian University, 2016

Early Childhood Education Program, Dept. of Educational Theory and Practice, University of Georgia, 2016

Elementary Certification Master’s Program, Indiana University, Indiana, 2014 

National Education Policy Center, 2014

Received by James Hiebert, the Robert J. Barkley Professor at the University of Delaware School of Education on behalf of the Mathematics Education Undergraduate Program for Elementary Teachers, 2013

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (Fair Test), Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, 2012

Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, 2011

College of Education and Human Services, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, 2010

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2009

Architects of Change, The John H. Lounsbury School of Education, Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, Georgia, 2008

Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, 2007

Institute for Educational Inquiry, Seattle, Washington, 2006

Southern Maine Partnership, University of Southern Maine, 2005

Urban Teacher Education Program, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2004

Master in Teaching (MIT) Program, Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, 2003

Department of Education, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, 2002

Bank Street College of Education, New York, 2001

Collaborative Teacher Education Program for Urban Communities of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2000