The Blue Ribbon Schools Program recently completed a two-year effort to update its criteria to reflect current education research, reform goals, and consensus views of best practice. The criteria published in this nomination package were developed at a series of planning meetings held during the summer of 1996 that included approximately 200 researchers, practitioners, and staffs from associations, foundations, state education agencies, and the U.S. Department of Education. They were further refined based on the experience of their first use by schools in 1997-1998. A series of commissioned research synthesis papers, as well as the practical experience of the diverse participants, served as the basis for reaching consensus on revised criteria. The research papers will be edited and published in book form by the end of 1998.
Schools are complex institutions.
Unusually successful schools adopt a comprehensive and long-term perspective dedicated to excellence and equity in all aspects of the school program. Students are more likely to learn and develop when the adults in the school not only support them, but also continuously learn themselves. Learning-centered school communities support the growth of all members. Since schools are located within larger political, social, and economic environments that may enable or constrain their progress, school success is often dependent on developing partnerships for collaboration with the larger community. These categories focus mainly on the classroom and its context.