The Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards honors five outstanding Chicago area early childhood educators each year. The selection process begins each fall with an open call for nominees. Each nominee must be a full-time Chicago early childhood teacher with at least five years experience with students eight years old or younger. They may work in preschools, home day care centers, childcare centers, Head Start programs, State Prekindergartens, and kindergarten through third-grade classrooms in public, private, and parochial schools. The awards have been restricted to teachers in Cook County in Illinois, but beginning in 2008, the honor will be extended to DuPage County as well.
A committee of leaders in the field of early childhood education reviews all nominees and then conducts site visits to a select group of the nominees. From their observations, the committee members select a group of finalists. Five of those finalists are then chosen to represent the best of the field, following a final application process that includes additional site visits and interviews by fellows from the Kohl McCormick Academy of Outstanding Educators. The five award winners are honored at a June luncheon ceremony.
Each winner receives:
The awards program seeks to raise public awareness of the importance of quality early childhood education and to raise the self-esteem of early childhood educators. As a result, the program also hopes to encourage better funding for early childhood education; encourage qualified candidates to enter the field; help in the retention of highly qualified teachers; and help parents to support their children’s learning.
Begun in 1996, the awards are a joint project of the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation and the McCormick Tribune Foundation. All winners are admitted into membership in the Kohl McCormick Academy of Outstanding Educators. The academy also includes recipients of the Kohl International Teaching Awards, which were given from 1985 to 1994.