3 elementaries win Blue Ribbon honor

The U.S. Department of Education has named three Arkansas elementary schools as 2016 National Blue Ribbon Schools.

The schools are: Des Arc Elementary School in the Des Arc School District, Euper Lane Elementary School in Fort Smith Public Schools and Weiner Elementary School in the Harrisburg School District. All of them were awarded based on overall academic excellence.

The three are part of 329 public and private elementary, middle and high schools that have students who performed highly on state exams or those that have closed achievement gaps among student subgroups. Of the Blue Ribbon Schools, only 28 had excelled in closing the achievement gap, the department said.

To qualify as "high performing," a public school must be in the top 15 percent of all those in the state in test scores and in the top 40 percent of those in the state in test scores of student subgroups.

The recognized schools are examples of "exemplary teaching and learning," the department said in a news release. All of the 329 schools -- 279 public and 50 private -- will take part in an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 7 and 8.

The 329 schools are in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity schools in Fort Benning, Ga.; Ramstein, Germany; and Seoul, South Korea.

Metro on 09/29/2016

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