The Stratton School, expected to wait years to be renovated but the host for a series of other Arlington schools since 1998, has kept its chin by focusing on pride.

Now national recognition has the Stratton community feeling downright proud. The elementary school near Turkey Hill is among seven in Massachusetts selected as a US Department of Education Blue Ribbon School for 2010, Principal Alan Brown wrote in an e-mail to the Stratton community Sept. 9. It was among 304 schools selected nationwide. It is listed among the high-performing schools. See the full list here >>

"This is a significant honor for Stratton," he wrote. "It is also a recognition of the Arlington School District.

"Stratton is an enthusiastic participant in all district curriculum programs. Our teachers work hard to implement and improve those offerings. We work closely with district curriculum mentors, literacy and math coaches to reflect upon and improve student learning."

Principal
Brown
at Stratton
playground.

Stratton teacher Janice Satlak-Mott and Brown will be going to Washington, D.C., to receive the award on Nov. 15-16.

Each school receives a plaque and flag to signify its Blue Ribbon School status.

Stratton is among 254 public and 50 private schools to be honored. In the past 28 years, more than 6,000 of America’s schools have received this award.

The nomination and application processes for Stratton began during last school year.

"This Blue Ribbon award both recognizes and sets the bar for Stratton, and we plan to exceed that level of expectation.

"I congratulate the Stratton community. A partnership between home and school is the lifeblood of a sound educational program. We have that at Stratton."

The Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private elementary, middle, and high schools that are either high performing or have improved student achievement to high levels, especially among disadvantaged students, according to the US Department of Education Web site.

Announcement in Washington, D.C.

Joining US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan were Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, D.C., Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and George Washington University Provost Steven Lerman for the Sept. 9 announcement at School Without Walls Senior High School, a 2010 Blue Ribbon School in Washington, D.C..

"Our nation has a responsibility to help all children realize their full potential," Duncan said, according to news release.

 "Schools honored with the Blue Ribbon Schools award are committed to achievement and to ensuring that students learn and succeed. Their work reflects the conviction that every child has promise and must receive a quality education."

These schools serve as models for other schools throughout the nation and details of their achievements are shared on the US Department of Education’s Web site:  

The Blue Ribbon Schools Program dates to 1982, when then-Secretary of Education Terrel Bell commissioned a study of American education.

The report, called "A Nation at Risk," described a "rising tide" of mediocre schools that threatened the nation’s future. In part, it galvanized the extraordinary energy that has been devoted to educational research and school reform over the last quarter century.  

Bell created the Blue Ribbon Schools Award to bring the best US schools to public attention and to recognize those schools whose students thrived and excelled. Working with the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, Bell launched the Blue Ribbon Schools and the National Distinguished Principals Programs. Both highlighted outstanding models of American schools and school leadership. 

Since then, the program has honored many of America’s most successful schools.

Criteria for high-performing public schools

The US Department of Education says that regardless of the school’s percentage of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the school is high performing.

"High performing" means that the achievement of the school’s students in the latest year tested places the school in the top 10 percent of schools in the state on state assessments of reading (or English language arts) and mathematics. Disaggregated results for student subgroups, including students from disadvantaged backgrounds, must be similar to the levels of all students tested.

The school must have made AYP as defined by the state for the past two years and also make AYP in the year it receives the award.

Other requirements for any school to be able to qualify: 

1. The school has some configuration that includes one or more of grades K-12.  (Schools on the same campus with one principal, even a K-12 school, must apply as an entire school.)

2. The school has made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) each year for the past two years and has not been identified by the state as "persistently dangerous" within the last two years.  

3. To meet final eligibility, the school must meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress requirement for the 2009-2010 school year. AYP must be certified by the state.  Any AYP status appeals must be resolved at least two weeks before the awards ceremony for the school to receive the award.

4. If the school includes grades 7 or higher, the school must have foreign language as a part of its curriculum and a significant number of students in grades 7 and higher must take foreign language courses.

5. The school has been in existence for five full years, that is, from at least September 2004.

6. The nominated school has not received the Blue Ribbon Schools award in the past five years, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, or 2009.

7. The nominated school or district is not refusing the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) access to information necessary to investigate a civil rights complaint or to conduct a district wide compliance review.

8. OCR has not issued a violation letter of findings to the school district concluding that the nominated school or the district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes. A violation letter of findings will not be considered outstanding if OCR has accepted a corrective action plan from the district to remedy the violation.

9. The US Department of Justice does not have a pending suit alleging that the nominated school or the school district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes or the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

10. There are no findings of violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in a US Department of Education monitoring report that apply to the school or school district in question; or if there are such findings, the state or district has corrected, or agreed to correct, the findings.

This story was first published Thursday, Sept. 9, and updated the next day.