Joliet West HS Teacher To Be Honored by ISBE 'Those Who Excel Award'

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced that over 500 Illinoisans will be honored for their extraordinary contributions to education across the state through its annual Those Who Excel and Teacher of the Year Awards. Joliet West High School's Kristen Koppers, English Teacher, has earned the Award of Excellence.

According to the ISBE website, awards are presented in seven categories: classroom teachers, early career educators (teachers 1-4 years), school administrators, student support personnel, educational service personnel, community volunteers, and teams. Among these categories, there are three different awards: Award of Excellence, Award of Meritorious Service, and Award of Special Recognition.

Educators who are presented with the Award of Excellence have greatly improved their school community by advocating for positive change and have shared opportunities for improvement with colleagues. These educators have become an integral member of their departments and larger school culture.

The annual Those Who Excel & Teacher of the Year Awards celebrate incredible classroom teachers, administrators, teams, volunteers, and school support personnel who have made lasting impacts on the students, families, and fellow educators in their school communities. Koppers is a lone recipient at Joliet Township High School and one of the few who earned an Award of Excellence out of the 500 of awardees.

This is Koppers 20th year at Joliet West where she continues to make a difference not only in education, her school, and her district, but within the community as well. While at Joliet West, she has been an intricate part of the school by starting the annual variety show, starting a prom dress resale to help students make prom more affordable, collected items and sent over fifty teacher bags with boxes of supplies to a Texas school when they lost everything in a flood, participated in Wreaths Across America while raising donations for 225 wreaths to be placed on graves at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, and created over 100 cancer care bags with her students to deliver them to a cancer care center in Joliet.

Koppers earned her National Board certificate in 2009 and a recertification in 2019. She is one of the few who is a current National Board Certified Teacher at Joliet Township High School District 204.

Koppers' passion for writing not only shows as an English teacher, but she is a published author of several books, Differentiated Instruction in the Teaching Profession, The Perfect Puppy (a children's book), and co-authored Escape Ed: Unlocking Student Achievement.

ISBE will celebrate the awardees at a banquet on May 18 at ISU in Normal, IL.

ISBE received a record number of nominations and applications for the 2024 Those Who Excel & Teacher of the Year Awards. A committee of administrators, teachers, educational service personnel, student support personnel, and past Illinois Teachers of the Year selected this year's awardees.