MONROE — A visit from State Superintendent of Public Instruction Carolyn Stanford Taylor prompted the pounding of drums by Northside Elementary School fifth-graders and raucous applause and yelling filled the school gymnasium Friday.

But it wasn’t because the first African-American superintendent in Wisconsin history had taken time to visit Monroe, it was because of who she was there to announce. 

Sarah Compton, a fifth-grade teacher at Northside, was in for a surprise as she sat on the fourth row of bleachers among students. She had no idea the event was actually in her honor. However, as it unfolded, she became aware — along with nearly everyone else in the room — that the event was to celebrate a teacher, not the superintendent.

Compton noted she was “shaking” after she had walked down to the podium, standing before the crowd. Despite the shock, she was able to express gratitude for the new designation and reflected on her role as a teacher, something she has wanted to be since third grade.

“It’s fun, it means something to me and I’m just lifted up by all the people around me,” Compton said. “I just think it’s the most important job and I feel so blessed to have found it.”

It was never divulged to the teacher that she was the winner. Nor to anyone, aside from Northside Principal Amy Timmerman, before the announcement was made Friday, or even that the event was even meant to celebrate a new Milken Educator. 

The Milken Educator Awards are an initiative of the Milken Family Foundation which works to honor excellence in education by honoring teachers throughout the country. The award comes with $25,000, working to highlight the labor of “early-to-mid career education professionals for their already impressive achievements and, more significantly, for the promise of what they will accomplish in the future,” according to the foundation website. 

As the event unfolded, Milken Senior Program Administrator Greg Gallagher introduced himself, noting he had traveled from California to take part in this secret mission.

“There’s a special and exciting reason why I’m here today,” Gallagher said. 

He called on students, first to explain the concept of excellence, then to note teachers help young people learn before ending on the concept of money. Some were brought up to hold placards with a dollar sign or a number on them, eventually showing off $25,000 to their fellow students.

The Milken Educator Awards have been referred to as the “Oscars of teaching.” 

“We don’t clap and hold ceremonies for teachers very often,” Gallagher said. “Our educators, who have the most important job of all — teaching people who get those other awards and they also teach all of you — haven’t had that kind of celebration, and that’s just wrong.”

No one applies. The foundation spends time evaluating teachers throughout the country and chooses them, announcing the awards in similar fashion to the event at Northside.

When Stanford Taylor rose for the second time during the morning assembly, asking Gallagher for “the envelope please,” the gym was quiet. She announced it was “Wisconsin’s own Sarah Compton” and as everyone turned to see the educator’s look of shock, her students yelled and applauded above the rest of the crowd.

Compton was chosen because of her work as a math and literacy teacher. Specifically, because she challenges fifth-grade students to think critically through a series of project-based lessons on finances, learning about the stock market by analyzing investment data and tracking an imaginary $10,000 investment. They even work individually and attempt to grow fake portfolios. She also teaches about concepts like spending, saving, sales tax, discounts and interest. The connection to real life helps students better examine social issues and negative trends, like texting while driving or cyberbullying. The highest growth by students in the district is by those who learn from Compton, and Milken was impressed.

Compton began with the Monroe school district 13 years ago. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2007 and a master’s degree of education from UW-La Crosse in 2011. Compton was the only Milken recipient from Wisconsin this year, and is one of only 33 awardees in the nation. 

“We are so, so proud of you,” Timmerman said after the award was announced. “I’m going to say on behalf of all of our students and staff that ‘We are proud’ doesn’t even begin to describe it. We are thrilled you are going to be our representative of excellence, widespread; in this building, in the district and across the state of Wisconsin.”