Blue Ribbon School Nomination

To reward successful schools, the U.S. Department of Education established the No Child Left Behind - Blue Ribbon Schools Program to honor those elementary and secondary schools in the United States that make significant progress in closing the achievement gap or whose students achieve at very high levels.  The program recognizes both public and private elementary and secondary schools that meet the assessment criteria. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes schools that are in the top 10 percent of schools in the nation as measured by state tests in both reading and mathematics.

Private Schools that qualify go through an extensive application process and submit their application to CAPE (Council for American Private Education).  CAPE is a coalition of national organizations and state affiliates serving private elementary and secondary schools. There are 29,000 private schools in America.  The CAPE Private School Review Panel met in Washington January 3-4 to conduct the initial review of private school applications for the No Child Left Behind - Blue Ribbon Schools Program.  Panel members identified many outstanding applications that met the program's rigorous criteria.  In all, CAPE identified 50 that they will nominate to the U.S. Department of Education for further consideration and review.  Holy Name of Jesus School was among those identified for forwarding!

The next steps to determine the 2008 Blue Ribbon school recipients are: CAPE delivers no more than 50 private school applications to the U.S. Department of Education in February.  In September, Secretary Spellings announces the 2008 No Child Left Behind--Blue Ribbon Schools.  And that fall, a ceremony takes place in Washington, DC, to honor the No Child Left Behind--Blue Ribbon Schools.