Milken Educator Award

The Milken Educator Awards is an educator recognition program in the United States that provides unrestricted grants of $25,000 cash to teachers deemed successful, in surprise ceremonies. Created in 1985 by education reformer and philanthropist Lowell Milken and first presented in 1987, this initiative of the Milken Family Foundation has presented awards to over 2,900 teachers across the United States, averaging around 30-40 teachers per year. Teacher Magazine nicknamed the program the "Oscars of Teaching." The award currently gives $25,000 in unrestricted funds to teachers who are early in their career, or mid-career, to reward them "for what they have achieved—and for the promise of what they will accomplish in the future." Recipients are ambushed at school assemblies or other public events to be publicly celebrated with the surprise announcement of the awards. For example, in January 2016, a Hawaii high school science teacher was "shocked" to receive the award, given at a school-wide assembly.