 SCPA continued to attract national attention, and as a local TV special reported, "educators from all over the country flock [ed] to Cincinnati to see how, and why, it works." In 1981, SCPA was invited to perform The Wiz at the National Theatre in Washington, DC, the "Theatre of the Presidents" and oldest major touring house in the country, becoming the first non-professional group to perform there since it opened in 1835. SCPA student Roscoe (Rocky) Carroll won the 1981 National Endowment for the Arts Talent Search in drama and became a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. The school received the Blue Ribbon School of the United States Department of Education in 1984 and the National Secondary School Merit Award in 1985. By 1985, it had been credited as the model for arts schools in 100 cities in the US, Europe, and Asia, and had been cited in textbooks as a model of excellence in school integration.
