Riverview alum wins national teaching award

A Riverview alum has been recognized by the White House for her work in shaping the minds of young scientists and engineers.

Ella Hereth, 42, of Indianapolis, was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching — the highest honor a math or science teacher can receive from the U.S. government.

Hereth graduated from Riverview in 2000 and went on to graduate from the University of Chicago.

After a career in health care, she became a teacher at Harshman Middle School at Indianapolis Public Schools. At the high ability and dual language school, she teaches high school-level geometry to eighth graders. She entered the Teach for America program and earned her National Board Certification in math.

Hereth credited her high school chemistry teacher at Riverview, Stephanie Birkmeyer, for always believing in her when she was a student.

“I love chemistry, and I loved her class,” Hereth said. “It’s so important to have a teacher that believes in you.”

Hereth said that when she went to Riverview, there were only two Advanced Placement classes offered to upperclassmen, AP English and AP History. Birkmeyer went to the district and said she wanted to teach AP Chemistry.

The idea that there were no AP classes in science, technology, engineering and math “didn’t sit right with (Birkmeyer) or me,” Hereth said.

When she was denied, Birkmeyer told the district she was going to have all five of her students take the Advanced Placement test at the end of the school year and prove there was a need to offer more AP options.

At the end of the school year, Hereth and her classmates took the test, and they all ended up scoring fives — the highest possible score on an Advanced Placement test. Birkmeyer was then able to teach AP Chemistry.

Now that she has adopted her own teaching style, Hereth has found the balance of teaching advanced students who might be academically ready, but not emotionally ready for high school-level classes.

“Part of what I do is help build that recognition of grades counting on transcripts,” Hereth said. “Because they’re middle-schoolers, you have to build structure. They have to move more, and they have less ability to focus (than a high-schooler would).”

Hereth recognizes that despite learning sophomore-level math, most of her students are still 12- and 13-year-olds. She said the students do most of their work standing up, using vertical whiteboards.

Hereth was nominated for the award about three years ago. She participated in a rigorous application process that included submitting videos of her classroom as well as teaching, writing about her content and answering questions that demonstrated content knowledge and an ability to adapt to a broad range of learners and teaching environments.

She said she knew about six months before everyone else that she had won the award. Last May, Hereth received a request from the White House to provide a small bio about her professional career and complete a security check.

She was told she couldn’t share the news with anyone until an official announcement was made.

On Jan. 13, Hereth and 335 other teachers and mentors across the country were announced as winners of the 2022, 2023 and 2024 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

“We were really proud,” said Hereth’s mother, Laura Campbell. “She is such a hardworking teacher, and she’s always striving to find the next best approach for her students. We were very happy she was recognized for her innovation and hard work.”

Awardees are usually invited to the White House for an awards ceremony and a professional development program. Winners are also awarded $10,000.

Hereth said she hasn’t received any money yet, nor has she received details about the awards ceremony in Washington.

The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching group did not immediately respond to a request for information.