Irving Park teacher Zane Doty advances in America’s Favorite Teacher contest

Zane Doty’s advance in America’s Favorite Teacher contest has drawn fresh attention to a classroom culture at Irving Park Elementary School that leans hard on curiosity, problem solving and persistence. At the Greensboro school, Doty has built her STEM teaching around the moment when a hard idea suddenly makes sense and students realize they can work through it step by step.

Doty’s approach fits a school with deep roots and a strong science focus. Irving Park Elementary says it serves about 584 students in pre-K through fifth grade, was established in 1923 and was the first school in Guilford County to implement the STEAM model. Guilford County Schools lists Irving Park as one of 71 elementary schools in the district, and the school’s staff directory identifies Doty as a STEM teacher under Principal Kimberly Leighty.

The contest has become a community rallying point. Doty has advanced to the quarter-final round, which America’s Favorite Teacher says places her among the top 1% of teachers in the competition. Voting for semi-finalists is scheduled to end Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 7 p.m. PDT, and the winner will receive $25,000, a trip to Hawaii for two, a Reader’s Digest feature and a school assembly from Bill Nye.

That Bill Nye visit carries extra meaning for Doty, whose love of science was shaped in part by the longtime educator and television host. She already shows clips of his work to her students, who call themselves her Dinosaurs, and she said the money would also matter because it could translate into more classroom resources and better tools for students.

Doty’s recognition is not new to Triad viewers. FOX8 previously named her Educator of the Week on April 1, 2024, and the latest profile suggests the support around her has only grown since then. Family, friends and students have been helping spread the word as Irving Park’s 600-student, STEAM-focused community backs a teacher whose classroom success is built less on flash than on the steady work of helping children think, create and keep going when the answer does not come right away.