The Path to Excellence: How Blue Ribbon Schools Achieve the 'Important Distinction'

Since 1982, the Department of Education has been awarding hundreds of public and private K-12 schools the distinction of being a National Blue Ribbon school. Currently, over 8,000 schools across the nation have been awarded the "coveted" recognition.

The Purpose of the National Blue Ribbon Program

According to the Department of Education, the program is intended to distinguish highly achieving schools throughout the country based on standards that indicate student performance and improvement.

It also allows for all schools to refer to the criteria that defines excellence and then assess what is needed for those that fall short of what is determined to be high quality.

In addition, the department asserts that schools in an area that are recognized as Blue Ribbon schools inspire other schools to "vie for the award" and raise standards in the following years.

"The recognition some schools receive stimulates the efforts of other schools to achieve the high standards as well. Because proven programs are shared among all schools, lower achieving institutions have models to help them raise their own bar and vie for the award in subsequent academic years."

What Constitutes a Blue Ribbon School

In order to become a distinguished school, for public schools, schools must currently demonstrate one of two things: being high performing, or being responsible for achievement gap closing.

Each category as different subsets. Check out the full list of eligibility requirements here. 

Are Non-Blue Ribbon Schools Sub-Par?

But what about the public schools that aren't Blue Ribbon schools? The national recognition program focuses primarily on public schools, meaning that parents could easily have to send their child to school that isn't high-performing when there is a high-performing school the town over.

Take for example, Connecticut. Connecticut has 36 schools that have been recognized for the Blue Ribbon distinction. Only 6 of these schools are high schools. This raises some questions, namely:

• Did a majority of Connecticut schools fall through the cracks of being assessed?
• Of the 480 high schools in the state, of which 349 are public, are the rest all below the mere six schools recognized? 
• And while the federal government argues that the distinction helps other schools not recognized improve, are the rest of Connecticut's high schools—or any schools not recognized for that matter—looking to the state's distinguished models to improve?

Do Many Forms of Excellence Mean Recognition of Mediocrity?

In 2001, researchers Tom Loveless and Paul Diperna took a look at the kinds of schools that were receiving Blue Ribbon distinctions up until that point.

When looking at student performance on math and reading, they found that most Blue Ribbon winners were simply average when it came to their students' performance.

We found that approximately a quarter of Blue Ribbon winners are indeed high achieving, scoring among the top 10 percent of schools after adjusting the scores for students’ socioeconomic status. However, an equal percentage of Blue Ribbon schools scored below average after making the adjustment for students’ socioeconomic status. The remaining schools, about 50 percent of Blue Ribbon winners, scored above average, but not extraordinarily so-above their state’s mean, but well short of the 90th percentile.

It prompted them to ask the question of whether too many forms of excellence creates reward for mediocrity.

On the other hand, almost fifteen years after the researchers made their critique, many argue that emphasis on student learning through student test scores alone is an inaccurate way to judge schools, teachers and students. Nowadays, experts and educators are calling for a movement to refrain from using solely standardized tests as indicators of success.

Does Self-Selection Give Wealthy Schools an Advantage?

Researchers Loveless and Diperna argued that the ability of schools to self-apply by filling out rigorous applications designed by hundreds of experts gives an advantage to wealthier schools that are more familiar with the application process.

Indeed, schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students may simply have better things to do than to apply for awards. The Blue Ribbon schools that we identified as low achieving (in the bottom 50 percent) are often quite privileged. Eliminating self-nomination would raise the program’s costs, requiring program officials to find deserving schools on their own, but it would make the program more equitable.

Weigh-in on your thoughts about the Blue Ribbon distinction by providing a comment or emailing editor[at]educationworld.com. We would love to hear from a principal or other education administrator.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

10/12/2015