Seven Maryland schools receive National Blue Ribbon status
Five Maryland public schools, including Eastern Technical High in Baltimore County and Ellicott Mills Middle School in Howard County, were named National Blue Ribbon schools this morning. Two Catholic schools also were named.
The designation recognizes schools that have consistently high achievement or have improved dramatically. "This is one of the nation's most significant awards presented to public schools," state superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said in a statement. The three other schools in the state are: Northern Middle School in Calvert County, New Market Elementary School in Frederick County and Northwestern Elementary School in Wicomico County.
The Catholic Schools were St. Louis in Clarksville and St. John the Baptist in Silver Spring.
Eastern Tech has maintained a record of high achievement over a decade, according to the state. It's High School Assessment scores were 99.7 percent in reading and 100 percent in math in 2009. About 20 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged.
Ellicott Mills also has a high percentage of students scoring well on the Maryland School Assessments, has high parent involvement and a record of outstanding music programs, according to the state.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
I'd like to know more about the specific criteria that are used to identify Blue Ribbon schools, as well as the exact process by which those criteria are judged.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 9, 2010 11:22 AM
A quick google search shows
National Blue Ribbon Schools
not to be confused with
Blue Ribbon School of Excellence
Seems like the state gets to nominate schools that are either "high performing" or "improving" - both terms are defined in excruciating detail here- and then at the federal level the application data is verified and AYP is checked.
It all seems pretty transparent to me.
Posted by: a parent | September 9, 2010 12:44 PM
Congratulations for all those who live across the Back River Bridge and attend ET on their achievement. Now if you could only get Bus Service to your neighborhood.
Posted by: Patrick Johnson | September 9, 2010 12:58 PM
Try becoming a "blue ribbon school" with 95-100 percent economically disadvantaged students and next to no parental involvement. Welcome to the reality for many Baltimore City Public Schools.
Posted by: Randy Gross | September 9, 2010 1:12 PM
From what I remember about Eastern Tech - you have to be pretty smart to get in there to begin with. Economically disadvantaged or not - you don't skate through EVT.
Posted by: blackbeltshopper | September 9, 2010 4:36 PM
Lets hope so - Eastern Tech is a magnet school that hand picks its students from 1000's of high performing applicants. Even students in the vocational programs must have good grades and outstaning attendance to get accepted. Lets keep the same staff in place and change ET to a local school that has to teach ALL students and see if they still outperform the rest. Where is the recognition for the "real" schools like Loch Raven, Perry Hall, Milford Mill, Woodlawn ...etc that have high performing kids despite the fact that they are overcrowded, underfunded, undertsaffed and have to teach some of the most challenging kids in the county.
Posted by: realteacher | September 26, 2010 11:48 AM