When state education chiefs have met at conferences or talked on the phone in recent months, the National Blue Ribbon Schools program has been a common topic of conversation.
The 43-year-old federal program recognized hundreds of schools each year for academic excellence or narrowing gaps in student performance. But the Trump administration ended its role in it over the summer, “in the spirit of returning education to the states.”
In the months since, a number of states have rolled out their own Blue Ribbon programs. At least 18 have created their own recognition programs, and at least four have honored the schools the federal program would have recognized. But some states are weighing whether the recognition is worth continuing without the special boost of the federal honor.
“We want to make sure that we are continuing to celebrate schools that don’t just meet expectations but exceed them for every learner, that do it because they’re valuing the whole child and setting up that environment, and also recognizing what the communities have done,” said Carrie Rowe, the acting secretary of education in Pennsylvania. “I think that’s a common thread, each of the state chiefs that I’ve spoken with, that we share in common.”
Blue Ribbon Schools program recognized excellence at national level
The Blue Ribbon Schools program was launched in 1982 by then-Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell to recognize schools for high performance. Winning principals were honored in a White House ceremony. Though the program has changed forms and faced funding cuts, it recognized schools across the nation, both public and private, for four decades.
But the Trump administration told state education chiefs in an August letter it would sever the program entirely, and encouraged states to “creatively fashion” new recognition programs.
The decision marked one more cut from a shrinking U.S. Department of Education that has eliminated half its staff, ended hundreds of in-progress contracts and grants, and proposed to end dozens of grant programs since President Donald Trump took office in January. The administration has frequently said its actions, with an end goal of eliminating the Education Department, are part of a larger project of “returning education to the states.”
“State leaders are best positioned to recognize excellence in local schools based on educational achievements that align with their communities’ priorities for academic accomplishment and improvement,” Madi Biedermann, principal deputy assistant secretary for communications and outreach, wrote in the Aug. 29 letter. “Awards conceived by those closest to the communities and families served by local schools will do more to encourage meaningful reforms than a one-size-fits-all standard established by a distant bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.”
Just days later, Connecticut launched its own recognition program. Others have since followed suit. In the past week alone, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and North Carolina have announced their schools that are receiving the state-level, Blue Ribbon-equivalent honor.
The national recognition was meaningful for schools
The Maryland state department of education quickly decided to revive its state-level Blue Ribbon Schools program that had been dormant since the 2019-20 school year, in part to honor the schools the state had already nominated for the 2025 honor when the federal Education Department pulled the plug.
“I know how much it means to those school communities,” Raven Hill, the department’s executive director of communications, said of the national recognition. “A lot of times those were considered to be the crown jewels of a particular school system, so it was disappointing and, frankly, it hurt when we got the email saying that the program was ending immediately.”
The schools nominated for the 2025 national honor this year will be recognized during the state Board of Education’s meeting on Nov. 4. They will also receive a Maryland Blue Ribbon School banner to display on campus.
In the coming years, schools will be considered for Maryland’s Blue Ribbon honor based on student scores on national and state assessments and their work to narrow performance disparities, Hill said, though the state is still developing specific benchmarks and guidelines.
“There was no question as to whether we would launch the state program,” Hill said. “The only issues to be sorted out were how it would look.”
The recognition is meaningful for educators, students, and families, said Michelle Reid, superintendent of Virginia’s Fairfax County schools, where an elementary school received national Blue Ribbon honors last year.
“I think that the federal recognition of excellence in public education is critical, and as the federal government stops their cheerleading for excellence in public education, I think it really weakens the power and promise of public education in this country,” she said.
Pennsylvania will honor its recipients at a dinner in December, in lieu of the recognition they’d otherwise receive in Washington.
“I think we need to stop and recognize that what individual schools have done, in the Blue Ribbon case, is extraordinary,” Rowe said. “They are statistically, significantly different than their peers, and taking some time to show that we value that difference and to look at how that difference might be replicated in other places that share similar contextual features is really important.”
Rowe said the state would, for now, continue to use the metrics established by the federal government for selecting its schools, but it wouldn’t rule out changes in the future.
Among other criteria, public schools recognized as exemplary high-performing schools had to score in the top 15% in the state for reading, math, or both, and high schools’ graduation rates had to rank in the top 15%. Those recognized for closing gaps in performance were recognized for specific student subgroups’ improvement. At least a third of the schools states nominated had to have high percentages of disadvantaged students.
Private schools were judged based on students’ performance on national tests such as the SAT and ACT and state tests if students participated.
“There’s been a complete abdication of responsibility for supporting public schools, and it’s unprecedented. It’s irresponsible,” said Martin Torres, the deputy governor for education in Illinois, which will honor 28 public and private schools at a spring event. “So this is an example of how states are picking up where the federal government has left off. But there is no substitute for the federal government, and while the federal government ignores public school students, the state of Illinois is stepping up.”
In announcing four schools as inaugural Blue Ribbon schools on Oct. 29, the Iowa department of education said in a statement that it was “well positioned to lead this program as a state initiative.”
An honor from the U.S. Department of Education carried special meaning
Part of the magic of the Blue Ribbon schools program was that it came from the federal government, said Randy Watson, commissioner of education in Kansas.
“While we will continue with state recognition, and we try in all of our state recognition programs to make that a great honor, this was just on top of that, and it’s really sad to see that go away,” he said.
Kansas is recognizing its Blue Ribbon schools this year, but will decide whether to continue something under the Blue Ribbon mantle in the future. The state already honors schools, and has a culminating annual event to celebrate school districts and school boards. It will have to weigh whether to keep the additional program.
“We don’t disagree that education is left to the states. That doesn’t mean that the federal [government] can’t have a recognition program, though, to recognize that—and outstanding students in some of the other programs,” Watson said.
“And so I would really ask them to reconsider, because I think they can send a powerful message that the work that’s happening in these states and these schools is meaningful, and that other people outside of each individual state recognize that.”
