Milken Educator

Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera joined students, teachers, and administrators at Marple Newtown High School in the Marple Newtown School District on October 3, 2019, to surprise educator Elizabeth Landes with the 2019 Milken Educator Award and a $25,000 check.

Landes is known as a data-driven instructor, using formative and summative student achievement data to differentiate her lesson plans on a daily basis. She always asks to have underperforming students added to her schedule and voluntarily conducts tutoring and test preparation sessions after school. Landes works with other teachers on differentiation strategies, and secondary teachers across the district use her lesson plans as templates. She helps teachers take and pass Praxis tests and is helping the district incorporate the Performance Expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards. Landes runs her high school’s AP Science Summer Institute and has worked on technology, AP, grading, and lab report revisions committees. Creating a caring culture of service matters to Landes. For Earth Day, she works with high school students to bring relevant environmental science education to a nearby elementary school. She serves as a Delaware County Hi-Q faculty advisor and facilitates a virtual environmental science course through the Bridges Virtual Online Education Consortium.

Elizabeth is the only educator to earn this distinction in Pennsylvania in 2019. For more than 30 years, the Milken Foundation has recognized outstanding teachers throughout the nation, and to date, has bestowed the Milken Educator Award on more than 2,700 educators. Each award recipient receives an unrestricted $25,000 award as well as continued networking and professional development opportunities. Learn more about the Milken Educator Awards.