St. Charles North receives Blue Ribbon recognition

St. Charles school officials are beaming with pride, having learned that the U.S. Department of Education thinks St. Charles North High School deserves a Blue Ribbon.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan Thursday announced the national Blue Ribbon winning schools, of which 254 were public and 50 private.

St. Charles North, one of 19 Illinois winners, was nominated based on it being in the top 10 percent in Illinois on standardized achievement tests in reading and mathematics, regardless of its demographics.

St. Charles North has raised its average ACT score nearly 9 percent in the last five years, and more students are taking Advanced Placement classes, Superintendent Donald Schlomann said.

"The criteria is the performance of the students - where you take them from and where you leave them off," he said.

St. Charles North Principal Kim Zupec and a teacher will attend the awards ceremony Nov. 15 and 16 in Washington, D.C.

"We are extremely proud of the efforts of our students and staff in their

aggressive pursuit of the best education possible. We are truly appreciative and indebted to our parents and the entire community for their support," Zupec said in a statement published on the school website.

The Blue Ribbon designation comes based on one of two criteria:

• Schools whose students are high-performing, regardless of backgrounds. These are buildings ranked among the state's highest-performing schools as measured by state assessments. For private schools, it involves scoring at the highest performance level on tests referenced by national norms in at least the most recent year tested.

• Schools with at least 40 percent of its students from disadvantaged backgrounds that improve performance to high levels as measured by the building's performance on state assessments or nationally-normed tests.

Four schools in Lake County and Highlands Elementary School in Naperville were also awarded Blue Ribbons.