NOMINATION PROCESS
Teachers must be nominated for a Kohl Fellowship to be eligible to compete for the award.  Nominations will only be accepted using the online nomination form on this website.   Nominations for the 2023 Award cycle have closed.  All nominations will be held for the 2024 Award cycle which opens in August 2023.

​Teachers can be nominated by students, parents, other teachers, community members, or administrators.  Because the program's purpose is to recognize the contributions of Wisconsin classroom teachers, staff members whose assignments are administrative or supervisory are not eligible.  All PK-12 classroom teachers who plan to continue teaching in their current or similar capacity for a minimum of 50% full-time equivalency during the 2023-2024 school year are eligible to be nominated and apply.  Pre-school 4K teachers in community-based centers must teach in a 4K program that is affiliated with an elementary school or school district and must be a currently licensed teacher in Wisconsin. 

Special services teachers are also eligible.  Special services teachers are those who serve in a PK-12 capacity other than that of a classroom teacher. Like classroom teachers, they must have daily face-to-face contact with students. Teachers employed as virtual school teachers associated with a school district are also eligible for nomination. Special services roles can include but are not limited to special education, gifted and talented (or other exceptional needs), instructional resource or interventionist, speech language pathologist, school counseling, school psychologist, school nurse, school social worker, or instructional media personnel.

​Once nominated, a teacher will receive email notification of his or her nomination, and also receive a link to begin the application process.

​Previous Fellowship recipients are ineligible to receive a second Fellowship, however teachers who received a Kohl student scholarship when in high school are eligible to receive a Fellowship if they are now teachers.  Teachers who have been nominated and applied in the past, but were not selected as a Fellowship recipient, may re-apply.  

​SELECTION PROCESS
Once verified as complete, applications will first be reviewed regionally at either the teacher’s Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA), or for teachers in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), through the MPS District Office.  CESA agencies will reach out and create Regional Selection Committees, to include students, parents, teachers, administrators, school board members, civic and business leaders, and local newspaper people. Teachers will be notified by their CESA or MPS Regional Selection Committee whether or not they have progressed to the Statewide Selection Committee.

​Successful 2023 applicants' materials will be forwarded to a State Selection Committee by Tuesday, January 10, 2023.​  Applicants not advancing to the Statewide Selection Committee will be notified by their CESA agency or MPS.  Representatives of the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation, CESAs and MPS, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation, the Wisconsin Homeschool Parents Association, and state education-related associations serve on the State Selection Committee.  Applicants who have reached the Statewide Selection Committee will be contacted no later than March 2023 with the results.  
 

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