Suburban private schools were told they earned Blue Ribbon awards. Then the Department of Education axed the program

Ten Catholic schools and two other suburban Christian schools, that recently were told they met the criteria for the prestigious National Blue Ribbon School Award, are celebrating the win despite the U.S. Department of Education ending the program.

The annual award has been recognizing academic excellence in public and private schools since 1982. But on Aug. 29, the Department of Education announced it is discontinuing the program, leaving awardees without a public recognition of their academic achievements.

Among the Archdiocese of Chicago schools chosen for the honor this year are St. Anne Catholic School in Barrington, Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, St. Norbert School in Northbrook and St. Giles School in Oak Park. Timothy Christian School in Elmhurst and Wheaton Academy in West Chicago also are award recipients.

Yet, none of the schools will get to revel in their accomplishments with a special celebration in Washington, D.C., as in years past.

“We felt it was important to tell people because they did do the work, they did have great results, they are among some of the best schools in the country so they did deserve some recognition for (it),” said Greg Richmond, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Richmond said the schools were notified individually in an Aug. 4 email from the Department of Education about being selected for the award, only to find out later that the agency was not going to celebrate it this year.

U.S. Department of Education letter to state chiefs or education

In its Aug. 29 announcement, the Department of Education said “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.”

“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.,” the letter reads.

Even without public acknowledgment, the award still means a lot, Richmond said.

“We are focusing our efforts on the fact that the schools have been recognized as being academically excellent, and not getting distracted by the D.C. politics,” Richmond said.

Schools are evaluated for the Blue Ribbon Award based on their overall reading and mathematics performance scores from the previous year. The Council for American Private Education reviews the scores and nominates schools to the Department of Education.

“Generally, they have to be in the top 15% of schools in the country to be considered,” said Richmond, adding CAPE only recommends about 50 schools nationwide each year.

The process is similar for public schools, though no list of awardees has been made public for them either. Typically, schools are recognized in the last week of September.

This is the first time the Archdiocese of Chicago — the third-largest in the U.S., serving more than 1.9 million Catholics in Cook and Lake counties — has had 10 schools recognized with the award in one year.

“Our Catholic schools typically do well on this,” Richmond said. “We have typically been winning one or two or three awards a year, so to get 10 was a pleasant surprise and really a testament to the overall quality of Catholic schools in our area.”

For Timothy Christian Schools in Elmhurst, it’s the first time its grade schools are being recognized.

“Our high school is already a Blue Ribbon high school,” said Superintendent Matt Davidson. “This was our first recognition for the K-8. It’s very rewarding. It’s a reflection of the hard work of a lot of teachers and our students. It’s a rigorous program. To be validated by an outside third-party group, that’s also very reaffirming.”

Davidson said there isn’t another endorsement or award at the national level that would rival the Blue Ribbon.

“I think this one has kind of been the top of the mountain,” Davidson said. “I was disappointed that it was dismantled in this way. These kids worked so hard for this. And in an era of teacher shortages, to have teachers step up all across the state, all across the country working so hard for this … I think it’s appropriate to recognize some people for a job well done.”

Schools that received a digital packet with a Blue Ribbon badge can still post the logo on their websites.

Without the Blue Ribbon Award going forward, schools have no other national recognition of their excellence, Richmond said.

“That’s what unfortunate about this award going away,” Richmond said. “I do feel the National Blue Ribbon program has been instrumental in establishing high standards for schools across the country.”