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School excellence award in the United States

The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, the Department honors high performing schools and schools that are making great strides in closing any achievement gaps between students. The U. S. Department of Education is responsible for administering the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, which is supported through ongoing collaboration with the National Association of Elementary School Principals, Association for Middle Level Education, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Since the program's founding in 1982, the award has been presented to more than 9,000 schools. National Blue Ribbon Schools represent the full diversity of American schools: public schools including Title I schools, charter schools, magnet schools, and non public schools including parochial and independent schools. The schools are urban, suburban, and rural, large and small, traditional and innovative, and serve students of every social, economic, and ethnic background.

In 1982, then Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell, best known for commissioning A Nation at Risk, described a "rising tide" of mediocre schools that threatened the nation's future. Secretary Bell created the National Blue Ribbon Schools Award to bring exceptional U. S. schools to public attention and to recognize those schools whose students thrived and excelled. Working with the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, Bell launched the National Blue Ribbon Schools and the National Distinguished Principals Programs. Both programs highlighted outstanding models of American schools and school leadership. Initially, the National Blue Ribbon Schools program honored only secondary schools; it was later expanded to include primary schools. It was changed again to honor secondary schools and primary schools in alternate years and now honors secondary, middle, elementary, and K 8 and K 12 schools each year. In 2003, the program was restructured to bring it in line with the No Child Left Behind Education Law, placing a stronger emphasis on state assessment data and requiring schools to demonstrate high academic success. Schools must show how data are interpreted and used and how curriculum, instruction, professional development, and student support promote student success. In 2012 the program was renamed the National Blue Ribbon Schools program to distinguish it from a for profit company which had appropriated the Blue Ribbon School name. During its first 25 years of existence, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Award was granted approximately 5,600 times, recognizing 5,200 different schools. (Some schools have been selected two or more times.) More than 133,000 public, charter, private and parochial schools serving grades K 12 are eligible for the award. More than 9,000 schools have been honored as National Blue Ribbon Schools — with more than 10,000 awards given in total — since the program's inception. Must have excellence in the fields of academics, arts, and athletics.

Although at one time schools self nominated for the award, this is no longer the case. At the invitation of the U. S. Secretary of Education, Chief State School Officers, including Washington, D. C., the Department of Defense Education Activity, the Bureau of Indian Education, and the Council for American Private Education nominate eligible schools for the annual award. Eligible schools must demonstrate high or strongly improving student scores on state or nationally normed assessments in the last year tested; schools must also make Annual Yearly Progress in accordance with No Child Left Behind. Nominated schools submit applications describing school operations such as the use of assessments and assessment data, instructional methods, curricula, professional development, leadership, and community and family involvement. A total of 420 schools may be nominated in any year; state quotas are determined by the number of students and schools. The Blue Ribbon award is considered the highest honor an American school can achieve. A school's use of the National Blue Ribbon Schools logo is restricted.

David W. Kirkpatrick, the Senior Education Fellow at the US Freedom Foundation, noted in an editorial titled, "Awarding Blue Ribbons: Recognizing Schools or Students?" that criteria for the awards do not take into account the socioeconomic status of the students and that studies show that students who come from homes with higher income and better educated parents do better than students without these advantages by virtue of their backgrounds. Thus, the award is usually given to schools with students from wealthy backgrounds. As evidence to support his case, he pointed to the distribution of awards given in Pennsylvania one year; of the eight schools receiving the award, only one was in a district whose income level was near the state average, and the rest went to districts with an above average income, including two in the wealthiest communities in the state. While Kirkpatrick proposed an alternative to recognizing "blue ribbon students", he wrote, " a more accurate indication of a good school would be one that adjusts for such socioeconomic factors and identifies those in which students do better than would normally be expected, based on their backgrounds." From the program's inception through 2003, schools were permitted to nominate themselves. As of 2003, nominations are handled through a state liaison which schools must contact for nomination. The program has also been criticized for assessment of schools coming from the school itself rather than an independent third party and a nomination and assessment process that favors schools with the know how and resources to complete the review assessment.