U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has announced that Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown is one of 320 schools nationwide to be named as a 2008 No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon School. This award distinguishes and honors schools for helping students achieve at very high levels and for making significant progress in closing the achievement gap.
Only 55 high schools nationwide were honored with the award, and Sussex Tech is the only high school in Delaware to receive it. It is also the first high school to receive the distinction for a second time. In 1996, then U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley also selected Sussex Tech as a Blue Ribbon School.
“This honor is a testimonial to the dedication of our administration, faculty and support staff to work together to raise standards to achieve excellence in education for our students,” said Principal Curt Bunting.
The No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private elementary, middle and high schools that are either academically superior or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement to high levels. The schools are selected based on one of two criteria:
• schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that dramatically improve student performance to high levels on state tests; and
• schools whose students, regardless of background, achieve in the top 10 percent of their state on state tests or in the case of private schools in the top 10 percent of the nation on nationally-normed tests.
Under No Child Left Behind, schools must make Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, in reading (language arts) and mathematics. Each state—not the federal government—sets its own academic standards and benchmark goals.
East Millsboro Elementary School was also named a Blue Ribbon School
This year’s winners will be honored at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. on October 20-21.
