Region 12 School to Receive Prestigious
2005 Blue Ribbon Schools Award

WACO – Bruceville-Eddy High School as well as 24 other Texas public schools were recently named 2005 No Child Left Behind—Blue Ribbon Schools.

This is the third group of schools to be honored under the new No Child Left Behind—Blue Ribbon Schools Program (NCLB—BRS), which recognizes outstanding public and private schools that are either academically superior in their states or that demonstrate dramatic and consistent gains in student achievement.

The program recognizes schools based on student achievement results. Under the 2005 NCLB—BRS Program, public schools are selected based on one of two criteria:

1. Schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that dramatically improve student performance on state tests, as determined by the state school chief; and

2. Schools whose students, regardless of background, achieve in the top 10 percent on state tests.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools also must meet "Adequate Yearly Progress," or AYP, in reading/language arts and mathematics, based on the state’s academic standards and benchmark goals.

For the 2005 No Child Left Behind—Blue Ribbon Schools Program, the Texas Education Agency used the following criteria to select its national nominees:

• A campus has at least 40 percent of its students from disadvantaged backgrounds and has reading and mathematics results from 1999 to 2002 on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test and the 2002-2003 Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAKS). In addition, the percent passing each subject area had to improve or remain the same each year over the five-year testing period. Consideration was also given to the highest reading and mathematics TAKS passing percentages for 2003-2004; or

• A campus has TAAS passing percentages in reading and mathematics from 1999 to 2002 and the 2002-2003 TAKS and was in the top 10 percent of passing percentages statewide for reading and mathematics for all four years, as well as TAKS in 2002-2003.

Neeley praised the nominees and commended them for their student achievement gains.

“ We are very proud of these No Child Left Behind—Blue Ribbon Schools. They represent a few of the thousands of outstanding campuses that we have in Texas,” Neeley said. “They have worked hard to earn this award by keeping the main thing the main thing — the children they proudly serve. These schools excelled in their performance and I would like to congratulate the students, teachers, administrators, parents and board members of these schools. I offer my heartfelt congratulations to them for the hard work and dedication that made this prestigious award possible.”

The Blue Ribbon Schools Program was established by the Education Department in 1982 and was redesigned in 2002 under the NCLB program to reflect the program’s high standards and accountability. The Blue Ribbon School program will recognize schools that are meeting the NCLB’s mission to “ensure every child learns, and no child is left behind.” No Child Left Behind—Blue Ribbon School Award recipients will be recognized as national models of excellence.

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and the United States Department of Education will honor the Blue Ribbon School recipients and highlight their achievements at a ceremony in Washington D.C. on Nov. 10-11. The award recipients will be recognized as national models of excellence.

A list of the Texas 2005 No Child Left Behind—Blue Ribbon Schools public is available at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/press/nclbbrs04.html.

The Blue Ribbon Sschools program was established to recognize and reward successful schools making significant progress in closing the achievement gap or whose students achieve at very high levels. The program recognizes and presents these schools as elementary and secondary models that meet either of these two assessment criteria.

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