Four Lake County schools among best

Carmel Catholic High School has a fourth blue ribbon to display on its walls.

The Mundelein school, along with three others in Lake County, were named No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon schools this week by the U.S. Department of Education.

Making the honor even more prestigious for Carmel, the school is the only high school in Illinois and one of three private high schools in the nation to be recognized.

Carmel also was named a Blue Ribbon School in 1985, 1996 and 2002.

"The fact that this stretches over 22 years is the most amazing thing and shows a consistent effort to continually improve education," Carmel Principal the Rev. Robert Carroll said. "This is not an exclusive school; we've got students of varied academic abilities. The secret is, we have a real devotion to learning, and we do that very well."

Saint Mary of the Annunciation School in Mundelein, St. Francis de Sales School in Lake Zurich and Twin Groves Middle School in Buffalo Grove also were named 2007 Blue Ribbon schools.

"Right now, this is affirmation for us that we do rank in the top 10 percent of the nation," Saint Mary Principal Deborah Dedeo said. "To say literally that our children are doing the best in the state is truly an exciting thing for us."

Roy Rash, principal of St. Francis de Sales, said the award is the result of a community effort.

"This couldn't be accomplished without the help of the community, teachers, staff members, parents and kids," he said.

The No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools Program rewards schools with test scores that placed them in the top 10 percent of schools in the state or nation.

The Blue Ribbon is one of the most prestigious education awards in the country.

In Illinois, 19 schools were named Blue Ribbon Schools, while 287 received the award nationwide.

Schools win the award for one of two reasons. Some schools have students with state or nationally normed test scores in the top 10 percent. Others schools won because they showed dramatic test score improvement while having at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Twin Groves Middle School in Buffalo Grove received the Blue Ribbon award for having test scores in the top 10 percent.

Assistant Principal Kevin Ryan said the staff makes an effort to intervene with struggling kids early on.

"We're truly trying to do what's best for the kids," Ryan said. "We want every student to exceed."