Assessment

Paige Revamps Blue Ribbons, Basing Awards on Testing

By Alan Richard — August 07, 2002 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

After nearly a year of planning, Secretary of Education Rod Paige has announced new rules and a new name for the popular Blue Ribbon Schools awards program.

The “No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools” awards will recognize schools nominated by their states, based almost solely on test scores. Schools no longer will apply for the award on their own initiative, nor will they face the scrutiny of a selection panel or site visitors.

The results could be very different, and the set of winners much larger, for the award, which draws the added words in its name from the federal legislation signed by President Bush in January that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Rod Paige

About 420 elementary and secondary schools nationally could qualify this coming year, said Stephen O’Brien, who oversees the Blue Ribbon program. This year, 264 schools won the award.

Mr. Paige announced the changes July 28 at the Council of Chief State Schools Officers’ summer meeting in San Diego.

Officials have been talking about revamping the 20-year-old program for about a year, since Congress started debating the president’s education plan and reports emerged criticizing the Blue Ribbon program for rewarding some schools with serious academic problems. (“Ed. Dept. Weighs Changing Blue Ribbon Program,” May 22, 2002.)

“In keeping with the principles of the No Child Left Behind Act, we will reward schools based on student- achievement results, not process,” Mr. Paige said as he made the announcement.

The New Approach

States will be able to nominate two sets of schools for the awards: those that rank among the top 10 percent on state tests, and schools with 40 percent or more of their disadvantaged students making dramatic improvements on test scores.

Instead of leaving it to schools to apply and then show on their applications why they deserve the award, states now will be charged with seeking out high-scoring schools and finding out what makes them successful.

“Very often, the schools that really are the highest performers don’t even apply for Blue Ribbon status,” said Beth Ann Bryan, a senior adviser to Mr. Paige who worked on the changes. “They’re so busy making sure their schools are doing well that they don’t have time to apply.”

Some educators closely affiliated with the program under its previous approach aren’t thrilled with the changes.

Joan M. Solomon, who has worked with Blue Ribbon schools in Missouri for nearly 20 years, said dozens of schools in her state already had begun the yearlong application process for the old award, despite her warnings that the program might be eliminated or revamped.

The old application—which required schools to show test data, explain their programs, and give details about their curricula and professional- development efforts—was a powerful school improvement tool that Missouri may continue to use in some fashion, Ms. Solomon said. The best Blue Ribbon Schools used the application to evaluate themselves and make improvements, she said.

“The new program may have some good results,” Ms. Solomon said, but it “doesn’t look at schools that comprehensively.”

The revised awards program places more responsibility at the state level, primarily on the chief school leader in each state.

The new Blue Ribbon application, in draft form, consists of 18 fill-in-the-blank pages requesting test scores and other data. The former Blue Ribbon application asked about 35 pages of questions and required longer written responses.

Ms. Bryan said the new application is simpler. States will run test data, notify the schools eligible, and then ask them to apply for the award by March of next year. Mr. Paige will announce the winners in May.

“Suddenly they’re going to say, ‘This is not overwhelming. Let’s do it,’” Ms. Bryan said.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the August 07, 2002 edition of Education Week as Paige Revamps Blue Ribbons, Basing Awards on Testing

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Assessment As They Revamp Grading, Districts Try to Improve Consistency, Prevent Inflation
Districts have embraced bold changes to make grading systems more consistent, but some say they've inflated grades and sent mixed signals.
10 min read
Close crop of a teacher's hands grading a stack of papers with a red marker.
E+
Assessment Opinion What's the Best Way to Grade Students? Teachers Weigh In
There are many ways to make grading a better, more productive experience for students. Here are a few.
14 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty
Assessment Spotlight Spotlight on Assessment
This Spotlight will help you evaluate effective ways to offer students feedback, learn how to improve assessments for ELs, and more.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Whitepaper
Understanding 'Through-Year' Assessment: What Everyone Should Know
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reconsider our assessment systems. Discover a fresh approach with Through-Year Assessment.
Content provided by New Meridian