For more than four decades, the National Blue Ribbon Schools program has helped hundreds of schools gain national recognition, opportunities to fundraise, and hire the best teachers in the profession. Last year, 356 schools were recognized for their academic excellence and narrowing achievement gaps between students.
This summer, though, President Donald Trump’s administration put an abrupt end to the award, in the “spirit of returning education to the states,” a federal education official wrote in a letter to state education chiefs. The award’s cancellation is yet another move to shrink the scope of the U.S. Department of Education.
Since the announcement, states including Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and North Carolina have moved to launch their own versions of the Blue Ribbon honor to keep recognizing schools doing exemplary work. At least 18 states have created their own recognition programs, and at least four have honored the schools the federal program would have recognized, according to Education Week reporting.
But without the national honor, the Blue Ribbon designation might not offer up the same opportunities for networking, fundraising, and recognition, said Julie Marshall, the principal of the middle and high schools in the rural Timber Lake school district in South Dakota. Under her leadership, Timber Lake High School and Timber Lake Middle School were named Blue Ribbon schools in 2014 and 2022, respectively. (The elementary school in the district also received the recognition in 2020.)
“It’s a very prestigious honor,” Marshall said. “I’m disappointed that it’s going to be taken away.”
A majority of the 400 students in Marshall’s district come from farming and ranching families. Students often travel up to 40 miles by bus to reach the Timber Lake school district, which is part of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.
Finding quality teachers, especially to staff her schools’ special education needs, has been a challenge for her rural district, Marshall said. But the Blue Ribbon recognition has given a huge boost to her efforts.
“When we go to job fairs, [the award] is a big draw for us to pull in high-quality teachers,” said Marshall. “The teacher shortage is real, especially in our small, rural communities.”
The Blue Ribbon recognition also brought in funding opportunities to upgrade the schools’ labs, she said, and gave Marshall a national network of school leaders to learn from when she visited the nation’s capital to receive the awards.
Education Week spoke with Marshall about how her schools benefited from the national honor, and what she makes of the program’s end. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your reaction when your schools won the honor? What’s your reaction now that the award has been discontinued?
We felt so proud that we had achieved that award and we relayed that to our students. There was a sense of community pride, and it’s disappointing that the award is going away. I think it was always something for us to strive toward. When you saw that [award announcement] come out each fall, it was like, “Oh, those schools really know what they’re doing.” It’s really just a source of pride and prestige. Hopefully, the states will be able to provide that.
But I think a piece of that was we got to go to Washington, D.C., and we got to be part of a conference where we were able to rub elbows with the best of the best and pick up things that other schools were doing that we could bring home and implement in our own schools. It was a really great networking opportunity.
What were your schools recognized for?
For us, it was about bridging the achievement gap. We’ve tried to build intervention programs where kids get extra help within the school day. We look at the data and what makes kids want to do well on tests and take pride in their scores.
For instance, in our middle school, we have been using our state interim testing. We would give them a test on that standard. We would look to see, who’s above standard, who’s at or near standard, and who’s below? And then you can build interventions to build those skills and make sure that the kids are aware of what they were missing. If it was narrative writing, for example, then we pull kids during or at the end of the day and work on that particular standard.
What kind of resources did you tap into because of the award?
The award attracted more grant opportunities for us because we were in the spotlight. We were able to get lab makeover awards. We were able to update our science lab, not necessarily because of the award, but because of the attention that was drawn to us. That grant opportunity fell in our lap.
We are 110 miles from the nearest Walmart or McDonald’s. You really have to want to be in a rural community and want to make a difference to this community of students. The award is a draw for us to pull in high-quality teachers [training at] local universities. Sometimes we can get teachers from other schools to come to our school because we are renowned and have a reputation for being a solid school.
How did the award help you as a school leader?
As a principal, you feel pride, obviously. But it’s also affirmation that what we’re doing is working for our kids. You don’t always get a lot of appreciation as a school. It’s just nice to know that we’re recognized, we’re appreciated. We’re doing what our students need.
For me, specifically, I learned a lot more ways to support teachers, far better evaluation strategies, and better ways to give my teachers feedback. I also got a lot of ideas on how to do academic interventions. Big schools do it. I learned how we could size that down to our small school.
One of the tools I brought back [from the conference] was a scheduling tool. The scheduling piece of the interventions was so difficult [to figure out]. We got an online program that teachers could use. The tool made it much simpler for us to schedule kids and make it an efficient process.
What would you recommend states keep in mind when they design their own versions of Blue Ribbon programs?
A way to work with the other states to get all of those recognized schools together just to share ideas. It’s hard to reinvent the wheel, and if you have seen something that’s working well, [we want] to be able to borrow that.
In education, we borrow and steal all the time to make things better for kids. If states could collaborate and share those things, it would be beneficial for us.
