National Blue Ribbon Schools Program

2015 Guidance for Chief State School Officers
National Blue Ribbon Schools Program
U.S. Department of Education

Nomination Process

OMB Control Number: 1860-0506
Expiration Date: February 28, 2015

2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools Program
Nomination Process
Introduction
Since 1982, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon Schools Program has honored
America’s most successful public and private elementary, middle, and high schools. A National Blue
Ribbon Schools flag waving overhead has become a trademark of excellence, a symbol of quality
recognized by everyone from parents to policymakers in thousands of communities.
The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes 1) schools whose students achieve at very high
levels or 2) schools making significant progress in closing achievement gaps among different groups of
students. The Program sets a standard of excellence for all schools striving for the highest level of
achievement.
National Blue Ribbon Schools are honored each year at a recognition ceremony in Washington, DC. The
applications from the award-winning schools are posted on the Department’s website. A small group of
National Blue Ribbon Schools are visited each year to identify educational practices that have been
especially successful.
The Department invites Chief State School Officers (CSSOs) for all states and the District of Columbia, the
territories, the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), and the Department of Defense Education Activity
(DoDEA) to nominate schools for recognition as National Blue Ribbon Schools. In this document, CSSOs
will refer to the chief school officers for the states and for the public education entities named above. In
submitting the list of nominated schools, the CSSO must certify that the schools meet the minimum
requirements established by the Department for nomination. As described below, states must rely on their
state accountability and assessment systems to identify schools for submission to the Secretary.

Requirements for the State Nomination Process
The number of schools each state may nominate is based on the number of K-12 students and schools in
each state, ranging from a minimum of three schools to a maximum of 35. For information about
nomination allocations, contact Aba Kumi, Director, National Blue Ribbon Schools Program,
[email protected] or by phone: (202) 401-1767.
At least one-third of the public schools nominated by each state must have enrollments which include at
least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds. A student from a “disadvantaged
background” is defined by the CSSO of each state. The definition must include students who are eligible
for free and reduced-price school meals and may include students with disabilities and students who are
limited English proficient, migrant, or receiving services under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
The Department also recommends nominated schools reflect the demographic and geographic diversity of
the state’s school-age population.
Each state’s nomination criteria must pertain equally to all schools nominated by the state.

Eligibility Requirements Based on School Performance
In order to be eligible for nomination, a school must meet several criteria based on the performance of its
students on state assessments in reading (English language arts) and mathematics. A school may be
nominated in either of two performance award categories:
1. Exemplary High Performing Schools: “High performing” is defined by the CSSO of each state, but
at a minimum means:
a. The performance of all tested students in the school in the most recent year tested in both
reading (English language arts) and mathematics must be in the top 15 percent of all schools in
the state when schools are ranked based on the performance of all tested students.
b. For each of the school’s subgroups, the performance of all tested students in the subgroup in the
most recent year tested in both reading (English language arts) and mathematics must be in the
top 40 percent of all schools in the state when schools are ranked based on the performance of
tested students in that subgroup.
c. For the most recent year in which graduation rates are available in the state, the graduation rate
of a high school must be in the top 15 percent of all high school graduation rates in the state.
2. Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools: “Achievement gap closing” is defined by the CSSO
of each state, but at a minimum means:
a. The school must be in the top 15 percent of all schools in the state for both reading (English
language arts) and mathematics based on its progress in closing achievement gaps between the
school’s subgroups and the state’s all-students group over the past five years, comparing the
most recent year to the earliest year.
b. For each of the school’s subgroups, the performance of all tested students in the subgroup in the
most recent year tested in both reading (English language arts) and mathematics must be in the
top 40 percent of all schools in the state when schools are ranked based on the performance of
tested students in that subgroup.
c. For the most recent year in which graduation rates are available in the state, the graduation rate
of each of a high school’s subgroups must be in the top 40 percent of all high school graduation
rates for that subgroup in the state.
d. The change in the performance of all tested students in the school over the past five years,
comparing the most recent year to the earliest year, must not be less than the change in the
performance of all tested students in the state in both reading (English language arts) and
mathematics.
In addition to meeting the above performance criteria, a nominated school must have at least 100 students
enrolled and have assessment data for at least 10 students in each tested grade for both reading (English
language arts) and mathematics. States with a large percentage of schools with fewer than 100 students
enrolled may include up to a similar percentage of these schools in their nominations as long as each school
has assessment data for at least 10 students in each tested grade for both reading (English language arts) and
mathematics.
Also, all nominated public schools must meet their state’s Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) in
reading (English language arts) and mathematics or make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in reading
(English language arts) and mathematics in each of the two years prior to nomination (2012-2013 and 20132014) and must do the same for the year in which they are nominated (2014-2015).

Special Assessment Provision for the 2015 Award Year
Some schools in some states participated in field testing in the 2013-14 school year for new assessments
developed by the assessment consortia. These schools may not have assessments results available for this
school year. The Department has decided to allow states with such schools to use the state assessment
results from the 2012-13 school year to nominate schools for the 2015 award year. These will be the same
assessment results that were used to nominate schools for the 2014 award year. Thus, if these states rank
order schools in the same way for the 2015 award year, it is likely that the same schools would be eligible
for the 2015 award. (If such a state revises its nomination plan for the 2015 award, there may be other
schools that are eligible for nomination.) These states, however, should have additional schools that are
still eligible—schools that were not nominated for the 2014 award—based on meeting the above school
performance criteria and the other criteria listed below. If not, the state should contact Aba Kumi, Director,
National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, by e-mail: [email protected] or by phone: (202) 401-1767.

Other National Blue Ribbon Schools Eligibility Requirements
1. The school configuration includes one or more of grades K-12. Schools on the same campus with
one principal, even a K-12 school, must apply as an entire school.
2. If the school includes grades 7 or higher, the school must offer foreign language as a part of its
curriculum.
3. The school has been in existence for five full years, that is, from at least September 2009, and
tested grades must have been part of the school for at least the past three years.
4. The nominated school has not received the National Blue Ribbon School award in the past five
years: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, or 2014.
5. The nominated school has no history of testing irregularities, nor have charges of irregularities been
brought against the school at the time of nomination. The U.S. Department of Education reserves
the right to disqualify a school’s application and/or rescind a school’s award if irregularities are
later discovered and proven by the state.
6. The nominated school has not been identified by the state as “persistently dangerous” within the
last two years.
7. The nominated school or district is not refusing Office for Civil Rights (OCR) access to
information necessary to investigate a civil rights complaint or to conduct a district-wide
compliance review.
8. OCR has not issued a violation letter of findings to the school district concluding that the
nominated school or the district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes. A
violation letter of findings will not be considered outstanding if OCR has accepted a corrective
action plan from the district to remedy the violation.
9. The U.S. Department of Justice does not have a pending suit alleging that the nominated school or
the school district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes or the
Constitution’s equal protection clause.
10. There are no findings of violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in a U.S.
Department of Education monitoring report that apply to the school or school district in question; or
if there are such findings, the state or district has corrected, or agreed to correct, the findings.

State Plan for Nominating National Blue Ribbon Schools
The Department is using a new process that requires all states to describe the procedures they will use to
determine which schools are eligible for nomination. All states must develop and submit a plan for how
they will identify and select schools eligible for recognition in each performance category: (a) Exemplary
High Performing Schools and (b) Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools. This new process
recognizes that many states are implementing significant changes in academic standards, assessments and
accountability metrics and targets. States may submit revisions of the plan they submitted for the previous
award year. As in the previous year, states may choose to nominate only Exemplary High Performing
Schools or Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools or both. The plan must describe the procedures
the state will use for each category in which they choose to nominate schools. The following description of
appropriate content should be used as a guide in determining what revisions need to be made.
For identifying either Exemplary High Performing or Achievement Gap Closing Schools, the plan must
address the following questions:
1. What measure of student performance will be used to rank order schools based on the performance
of all or subgroups of students on the state assessments (e.g., average student scale score,
percentage of proficient students, student growth based on value added or growth percentiles)?
2. Will schools be ranked separately for reading and mathematics, requiring a school to be ranked
sufficiently high in both subjects, or after combining each school’s performance in reading and
mathematics?
3. Will certain types of schools be excluded from the ranking process (e.g., enrollments under 100,
less than 10 tested students in each grade in reading or mathematics) or will those schools be
filtered out after the ranking process is completed?
4. Will schools be ranked within each grade, within grade levels (e.g., elementary, middle, high), or
across all grades tested? If not across all grades tested, how will schools that serve more than one
grade or grade level be ranked?
5. For which subgroups, including special low-performing groups or super subgroups, will schools be
ranked based on subgroup performance?
6. What is the minimum for the number of students tested in a subgroup in a school in order to include
a school in a ranking based on that subgroup’s performance?
7. What is the minimum for the number of students tested in a subgroup in a school before the school
is held accountable for being in the top 40 percent for that subgroup?
8. What type of graduation rate based on which year was used to rank order high schools on
graduation rate?
For identifying Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools,
1. For which two years (e.g., the most recent year and four years prior) will the gap between each
school’s subgroups and the state all student group be calculated so that the change in the gap from
the earlier to the most recent year for each school can be ranked for each subgroup?
2. For which two years (e.g., the most recent year and four years prior) will the difference between
each school’s all student group and the state’s all student group be calculated so that the change in

this difference from the earlier to the most recent year for each school can be calculated to
demonstrate that the school’s all students group has not declined relative to the state’s all student
group

Submitting State Nomination Plans to the Department
States are required to submit their nomination plans, as outlined above, for review. Plans can be submitted
online through a secure portal located at State Liaison National Blue Ribbon Portal. Reviewers will follow
up with questions, suggestions, or comments when necessary. Should technical assistance be required while
developing plans, state liaisons should contact Aba Kumi, Director, National Blue Ribbon Schools
Program, by e-mail:[email protected] or by phone: (202) 401-1767.

Submitting State Nominated Schools to the Department
Once plans are reviewed and accepted by the Department, states will implement their own methodology for
nominating schools. Submissions of nominated schools will be made online through a secure portal located
at: State Liaison National Blue Ribbon Portal. The submissions will include descriptive information and
demographic data for each nominated school. In addition, submissions will supply a URL to each school’s
most recent public report card.
Before submitting nominations, the Department recommends that state liaisons contact the principal of each
school under consideration to confirm interest in applying for the National Blue Ribbon School award. In
addition, the Department recommends that state liaisons offer to review completed school applications
before final submission to ensure that applications reflect the high quality expected by the CSSO. This
review would also serve to verify that the school meets the approved state eligibility criteria and all other
requirements of the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program. Finally, the Department recommends schools
and states hold off publicizing their nominations until after the Secretary’s announcement of the awards.

Timeline for 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools
Date

Due

September 25, 2014

The Secretary sends a letter of invitation to the CSSOs, DoDEA, BIE, and CAPE
requesting nominations of schools.

November 21, 2014

Plans for public school nominations from CSSOs, DoDEA, BIE, and non-public
school nominations from CAPE are due to the Department.

December, 2014

Plans for nominations are reviewed for alignment with the general eligibility
criteria of the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program.

December 12, 2014

Non-public school applications are due to CAPE.

January 12, 2015

Public school nominations from states are due to the Department.

January 15, 2015

The Department invites schools nominated by CSSOs to apply for recognition as
National Blue Ribbon Schools.

January 30, 2015

CAPE selects its nominations.

March 20, 2015

Completed public and non-public school applications are due to the Department.

Date

Due

April-May, 2015

Applications are reviewed for completeness, quality and accuracy.

August, 2015

States certify that nominated public schools have met all eligibility requirements.

September, 2015

The Secretary announces the 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools.

November, 2015

Two representatives from each school, the principal and a teacher, attend the
recognition ceremony in Washington, DC.