The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, from the US Department of Education, was established in 1982 to recognize outstanding public and nonpublic schools. Every year the program honors the most skilled and effective educators across the country. For more than 30 years the National Blue Ribbon School Award has been presented to more than 7,000 schools, including: public, charter, magnet/choice, Title 1, and nonpublic. This year two schools from the IU1 area were recognized for their achievements: Bentworth High School and Canon-McMillan School District’s First Street Elementary.
The program, established by the second Secretary of Education, Terrel H. Bell, was created to bring public attention to the best schools in the United States and to facilitate communication and sharing of best practices among schools. Through the program, schools are honored with one of the two awards. Award categories include:
- Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing: awarded to schools that have made the greatest advances, top 15%, in closing subgroup achievement gaps in English and mathematics over the past five years.
- Exemplary High Performing: awarded to schools that have their state’s highest high school graduation rates and the highest achieving students, top 15%, in English and mathematics.
Schools that receive the award show strong evidence in student achievement measures and research-based indicators of school quality. These high-performing schools that show progress in closing the achievement gap within student groups are honored with the award from the Department of Education. IU1 is proud to have two schools honored this year through the National Blue Ribbon School Program. Bentworth High School, in Washington County, received the Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing School Award. Canon-McMillan School District’s First Street Elementary, in Washington County, received the Exemplary High Performing School Award.
Annual awards are presented to the schools at an awards ceremony in Washington, DC, where each school is recognized with a plaque and flag that represents their achievement. Recipients of the award share their achievements on the National Blue Ribbon Schools section of the US Department of Education’s website, continuing the vision of sharing best practices amongst schools.