On October 28, 2020, the Classroom of the Future Foundation (CFF) will hold its 17th Annual Innovation in Education Awards as a virtual event. This event brings together educators and business leaders to highlight champions of educational innovation in the community, as well as exceptional students pursuing careers in STEM education.
At the event, CFF highlights specific school programs with “Innovation Awards,” a very special recognition that honors our four classroom grantees. These are all programs that are getting students excited about learning and increasing student achievement. Educators apply for Innovation Grants through an online request for application process, and an application review panel consisting of leaders in the business and education communities meet to select winners in the following award categories:
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- Inspire Award: This award is given to the program that inspires, excites, motivates, sparks and/or influences teachers to teach and students to learn through exceptional, unprecedented or extraordinary programs.
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- Innovate Award: This award showcases the creative innovations of the one program that facilitates enhanced teaching and learning. This award specifically focuses on the uniqueness of the “program actions” that promotes teacher innovation, increases student interest and drives performance and/or achievement.
- Achieve Award: This award showcases an innovative program that is able to quantify program results or achievements that drive student learning. It specifically focuses on the “program evidence” that directly correlates to positive student outcomes.
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- Impact Award: This award is the most prestigious award given to the ONE program that embodies the first three attributes: inspire, innovate, and achieve which culminate to realize the fourth: IMPACT on teachers, students and your community. This program exceeds all others in its ability to impact students and teachers through inspiring, innovative, exceptional, unprecedented and/or extraordinary program components that are verified by quantitative and sustained results. Additionally, this program substantiates its sustainability and can be replicated by others.
In addition to the Innovation Awards, CFF recognizes a group of educators with “Special Awards” for the extraordinary impact that they each have made on the learning environment in San Diego County, as part of CFF’s Innovative Educator program. Special Award winners are selected by the CFF Board of Directors.
Lastly, CFF recognizes the achievement of exceptional students in the AVID program by rewarding their accomplishments with High Tech Academic Achievement Scholarships to pursue a STEM degree.
Our 2020 Class of Awardees exemplify the mission of CFF and are truly making a difference in the lives of students. Join us in honoring them today.
Congratulations to all of our award winners!
2020 Innovation Awards
| Impact Award | World of Work Initiative | Cajon Valley Union School District |
| Achieve Award | Fire Academy | Health Sciences High & Middle College |
| Innovate Award | Personalized Learning Team | Cardiff Elementary School District |
| Inspire Award | Beebots & Cubelets | Central Elementary School, Escondido Union School District |
| Honorable Mention Achieve Award | Pomerado Launch Lab | Poway Unified School District |
| Honorable Mention Innovate Award | Honeycomb by EDGE Program | Helix Charter High School |
2020 Special Awards
| Todd W. Gutschow Visionary & Outstanding Leadership Award | Dr. Tom Dillon, Senior Vice President | SAIC (Ret.) |
| Innovative Superintendent Award | Dr. Holly McClurg, Superintendent | Del Mar Union School District |
| Innovative Educator Award | Glen Warren, Director of Literacies, Outreach, & Library Services | Encinitas Union School District |
| Innovative Principal Award | Dr. Eric Chagala, Principal | Vista Innovation & Design Academy (VIDA), Vista Unified School District |
| College & Career Pathways Educator of the Year Award | Dr. Matt Tessier, Assistant Superintendent, Innovation & Instruction | Chula Vista Elementary School District |
| SDCUE Innovative TOSA of the Year Award | Melissa Hughes, TOSA Energy Station | Chula Vista Elementary School District |
| SDCUE Innovative Teacher of the Year Award | Sophia Jacoub, Teacher | Santana High School, Grossmont Union High School District |
| Business Champion of the Year | USS Midway Museum |
Meet the Innovation Award Winners
Impact Award: World of Work Initiative, Cajon Valley Union School District
The World of Work (WoW) Initiative is a career development framework, grounded in career theory, led by teachers, designed in Cajon Valley, and being deployed across grade levels starting in TK. The goal is to serve the district’s vision in raising happy kids, in healthy relationships, on a path to gainful employment. WoW is a curriculum designed for every child, in every grade, in every year. It brings career-related learning into the classroom by teachers and is currently in its third year of implementation.
Achieve Award: Fire Academy Program, Health Sciences High & Middle College
The Fire Academy program empowers students to become emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and firefighters, helping more than 630 students to pursue their dreams. Students engage in a four-year CTE pathway program, modeled on the California State Fire Marshal Firefighter One Academy and based on the skills mandated by the International Fire Service Training Association. The program features rigorous academic courses, college courses, essential workplace skills for fire service, and partnerships with local Fire & Emergency Medical Response agencies.
Innovate Award: Personalized Learning Team, Cardiff Elementary School District
The Personalized Learning Team program is made up of innovative educators and administrators who are using design thinking to cultivate a student-centered, personalized learning environment where curiosity and passion ignite the learning process for each student. Educators create individual personalized learning solutions for their classrooms by conducting empathy interviews, brainstorming, collaborating, testing, and iterating. This program was developed with our rapidly changing job market in mind, and is focused on preparing students to be lifelong learners so they can tackle any problem that comes their way.
Inspire Award: Beebots & Cubelets Program
The Beebots and Cubelets program leverages robots to enhance STEM education for first graders. Aligned with the Common Core standards, students learn coding and programming using simple robots that reinforce mathematics, measurement, critical thinking, collaboration, and even language arts. This program creatively meets a common gap of STEM education in lower grades by addressing basic programming skills without the use of screen time.
Stay tuned for more information about our Special Award winners and High Tech Academic Achievement Scholarship winners!