DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O.
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 209
September 5, 2008
INFORMATIONAL
|
TO: |
Division
Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Billy K. Cannaday,
Jr. Superintendent
of Public Instruction |
|
SUBJECT: |
United
States Department of Education's No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon
Schools Recognition Program |
The purpose of this memorandum is to
announce an opportunity for recognition of certain schools in the Commonwealth
through the United States Department of Education's No Child Left Behind
Blue Ribbon Schools Recognition Program.
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) encourages school divisions
to nominate eligible schools according to the criteria.
The Blue Ribbon Schools Recognition
Program honors elementary and secondary schools that have made significant
progress in closing the achievement gap or schools that have students achieving
at the highest levels. This program recognizes and presents elementary and
secondary schools as models that meet one
of two eligibility criteria:
1) Regardless
of the school's performance of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the
school is high performing. High
performing means that the achievement of the
students in at least the highest grade tested in the latest year tested
places the school in the top 10 percent of schools in the state on state
assessments of reading and mathematics.
Disaggregated results for student subgroups, including students from
disadvantaged backgrounds, must be similar to the levels of all students
tested. At a minimum, the subgroup test
scores in the highest grade tested in the latest year tested must meet the
performance criterion for dramatically improving schools that define the top 40
percent of schools; or
2) If at least
40 percent of the school's students are from disadvantaged backgrounds, a
school may qualify if the achievement of its students has dramatically improved
to high levels. Dramatically improved
to high levels means (a) for at least the highest grade tested, the school has
demonstrated a positive trend in test results from the earliest to the latest
year reported, and (b) in at least the highest grade tested in the latest year
tested, the achievement of the school's students places the school in the top
40 percent of schools in the state on state assessments of reading and
mathematics. Disaggregated results for
student subgroups, including students from disadvantaged backgrounds, must also
show improvement similar to that of all students.
If you would like the VDOE to consider
a school from your division as a 2008-2009 No
For questions regarding the No Child
Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools Recognition Program, please contact
Kathleen Smith, director, Office of School Improvement, at (804) 786-5819 or by
e-mail to Kathleen.Smith@doe.virginia.gov,
or Mia-Gabriella Gomes, school improvement specialist, at (804) 225-2657 or by
e-mail to Mia.Gomes@doe.virginia.gov.
BKCJr/KMS/MG/pl
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