Michelle Gagne found the perfect gown to attend a black tie gala in Los Angeles on Saturday night, where she and 69 others from around the country were honored as top educators by the Milken Family Foundation.

Gagne teaches at Auburn’s Sherwood Heights Elementary School, and won the Milken Educator Award for Maine in October, and the $25,000 prize.

Dubbed the Oscars of Teaching by Teacher Magazine, the glitzy awards dinner was in a posh ballroom at the Westin Bonaventure. Gagne wore a long, sleek, black beaded gown she bought at Marden’s.

“I’ve been joking since I got here that I am a true Mainer,” a thrifty one at that, she said. “I wish I could dress up and look elegant and not have found my dress at Marden’s.”

But she shopped and shopped for the perfect gown. She found it “for $19.95. It was absolutely beautiful,” she said. “I shop at Marden’s all the time.”

Gagne complimented her outfit with shimmering earrings and bracelet, and wore her hair up. “I did my own hair,” she said

The dinner, which Gagne attended with her husband, Gerry, “was the most extravagant, but genuine, experience of my life,” she said. Despite all the gowns and tuxedos, “no one ever lost sight of themselves and the state they came from.”

Those high up in the Milken Family Foundation spoke to, and knew each of the 70 award winners and why they were chosen. Either Mike Milken or his brother Lowell Milken personally posed with each educator holding their award.

Gagne attended seminars on education reform and said “we got a sense that politicians are finally listening to teachers for a need for achievement results to be based on progress, not just standards.”

The Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind has called for all students to achieve at their grade levels, or schools can be sanctioned. There’s pressure mounting for students to be assessed on their progress, Gagne said.

“When you have a child who’s been struggling right along, and at the end of the year they’ve made two years growth but they’re still behind, it’s very frustrating not to be able to show that,” Gagne said. “Children are making gains, but teachers need to be given validation for the gains students have made.”

Gagne will be back in her classroom next week, after the April vacation.