19 schools named Blue Ribbon schools

On Board Online • Leadership Development • September 29, 2008

The State Education Department (SED) and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) have designated 19 New York State public elementary and middle schools as 2008 Blue Ribbon Schools.

DOE established the No Child Left Behind – Blue Ribbon Schools Program to honor those elementary and secondary schools that make significant progress in closing the achievement gap or whose students achieve at very high levels. SED nominated the schools for the award.

“We commend New York State’s Blue Ribbon Schools for excellent work by their teachers, administrators and especially by their students,” said State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills. “Each year more New York State students are performing at a higher level, and New York’s Blue Ribbon Schools are models of the way we want to go.”

The program recognizes and presents as models public elementary and secondary schools that met either of two assessment criteria during the 2006-07 school year. 

First, the program recognizes schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds where student performance is in the top 10 percent in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics on state assessments.  Second, it recognizes schools, regardless of their demographics, that are in the top 10 percent of schools as measured by state tests in both ELA and mathematics.

Additional eligibility criteria include the following:

• Schools must have met the 90th percentile in the highest grade-level in the school.
• Schools must have made annual yearly progress (AYP) in 2006 and 2007.
• Schools must not have been on the school improvement list in 2006 and 2007.
• Schools must not be designated as persistently dangerous.
• Schools must have been open for at least five years.