From staff reports

LEWISTOWN — After a teacher with local ties claimed the nation’s top honor last year, Pennsylvania is once again in the national spotlight for excellence in education.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Carrie Rowe announced that Leon Smith, the state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year, has been named one of five finalists for the 2026 National Teacher of the Year award by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Last year, Mifflin County’s Ashlie Crosson, a Pennsylvania educator from the region, was named the 2025 National Teacher of the Year, marking a rare back-to-back moment of national recognition for teachers from the state.

Smith is a secondary teacher at Haverford High School in the Haverford Township School District, where he teaches AP U.S. history and AP African American studies and has spent more than two decades in the district. He is also a leader beyond the classroom, providing professional development on culturally relevant teaching, growth mindset strategies and supporting historically marginalized students.

“Educators like Leon Smith demonstrate the influence one person can have in shaping young minds by empowering, inspiring and championing learners both in and out of the classroom,” Rowe said. “An effective educator builds coalitions of support to positively impact their entire community — not just today, but in the future.”

Smith is also an advocate for the teaching profession, having launched a “Grow Your Own” teacher program within the district to support future educators. Outside the classroom, he serves as an African American Cultural Enrichment adviser, freshmen boys basketball coach and mentor.

If selected as National Teacher of the Year, Smith would spend the next year serving as a national ambassador for education and an advocate for teachers and students across the country.

Crosson holds a bachelor’s degree in English/journalism from Susquehanna University, a master’s degree in educational leadership from Penn State University and a gifted education endorsement from Millersville University.

Smith joins four other finalists for the national honor:

• Katie Collins, Alabama Teacher of the Year, a first-grade teacher at Bluff Park Elementary School in Hoover, Alabama.

• Rachel Kinsaul, Georgia Teacher of the Year, an agriculture teacher at Morgan County High School in Madison, Georgia.

• Michelle Gross, Kentucky Teacher of the Year, a seventh-grade mathematics and gifted studies teacher at Spencer County Middle School in Taylorsville, Kentucky.

• Linda Wallenberg, Minnesota Teacher of the Year, a ninth- through 12th-grade English teacher at Eden Prairie High School in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

“I am honored to join this amazing group of finalists as the representative from Pennsylvania,” Smith said. “I am grateful to my family, friends, students, administrators, mentors and the Haverford Township community who have supported me along the way.”

The 2026 National Teacher of the Year will be announced in the spring.