Pennsylvania’s teacher of the year is a Haverford High educator
Leon Smith, who has worked for 22 years in the Delaware County district, teaches 9th grade Honors and Advanced Placement Social Studies, as well as 10th to 12th grade African American Studies.
A veteran social studies teacher at Haverford High School and advocate for growing the ranks of teachers of color was named the 2025 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year on Monday.
Leon Smith, who has worked for 22 years in the Delaware County district, teaches ninth-grade honors and Advanced Placement social studies, as well as 10th- to 12th-grade African American studies. He also serves as the high school’s African American cultural enrichment adviser and coaches the freshman boys’ basketball team.
“Mr. Smith perfectly exemplifies what it means to be an excellent educator, and his commitment to his school is making a lasting impact on his students, their families, and the surrounding community,” said the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s interim acting secretary, Angela Fitterer.
Accepting the award Monday at the education department’s annual professional development conference in Hershey, Smith called it a “tremendous honor that I do not take lightly.”
A senior fellow with Teach Plus, an organization that trains teachers to advocate for equitable policies and pushes to combat the shrinking teacher pipeline, Smith said, “I stand here on the shoulders of great educators of the past,” invoking prominent Black intellectuals like Carter Woodson and W.E.B. DuBois.
“They understood that education is truly liberatory,” Smith said. “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”
Noting the decline in new teachers entering the profession, Smith said the problem was magnified for teachers of color, who make up only about 7% of Pennsylvania’s teacher workforce. Research shows Black students who have at least one Black teacher in elementary school are more likely to graduate high school and consider college, said Smith — who didn’t have any Black teachers, from elementary through high school.
“I became a teacher because I wanted to be the teacher I never had,” said Smith, who started a “grow-your-own” teacher program at Haverford, encouraging district students to become teachers. He said he was committed to creating more pathways “for young people to enter our wonderful profession.”
The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, credited Smith with going beyond his classroom to advocate “for strong public schools and a more diverse educator workforce.”
“We admire his passion for teaching, his commitment to his students, and his tireless work to foster more inclusive environments,” the union’s president, Aaron Chapin, said in a statement.
Smith was among 12 finalists for the Teacher of the Year award. Other local finalists included Sherry Appleton of the Middle Bucks Institute of Technology, Anne Fisher of Downingtown Middle School, Kevin Tomlinson of Evergreen Elementary School in the Perkiomen Valley district, and Jessica Waber of the Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in the Philadelphia district.