Los Angeles, CA—Two surprise TAP Recognition Awards were presented to honor organizations and schools for their commitment to TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement. The TAP Award of Distinction honors organizations. The TAP School of Promise Award honors individual schools in early stages of implementation and comes with a $5,000 financial prize. The Awards were presented at luncheons Friday and Saturday, March 9 and 10, 2012, before more than 1,000 educators and policy leaders attending the 12th National TAP Conference, Building a System of Teacher Leaders.

TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement is a revolutionary education reform that offers teachers opportunities for career advancement, ongoing job-embedded professional growth, educator evaluation and performance-based compensation. The implementation of TAP's comprehensive elements is proven to strengthen teacher effectiveness and student achievement.

"I commend the TAP Recognition Awardees for their dedication to implementing the TAP system as their core strategy to advance teacher effectiveness and student learning," said Dr. Gary Stark, president and CEO of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching—the organization that manages and supports TAP and presents the TAP Recognition Awards.

The TAP Award of Distinction was presented to the DeSoto Parish School System (Louisiana), Lancaster Independent School District (Texas), Laurens County School District 56 (South Carolina) and the Lincoln Consolidated School District (Arkansas).

Recipients of the TAP School of Promise are Aikin Elementary School (New Caney Independent School District, Texas), Carter Middle School (Knox County Schools, Tennessee), Judkins Middle School (Lucia Mar Unified School District, California) and West Goshen Elementary School (Goshen Community Schools, Indiana).

For photos, videos and individual press releases on the honorees, visit the TAP newsroom.

The TAP Recognition Awards are funded by the Lowell Milken Family Foundation.

Introduced in 1999, TAP impacts more than 20,000 teachers and 200,000 students. For more information on TAP or the 12th National TAP Conference at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, visit www.niet.org. You can also follow the TAP system's live updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tapsystem.