DC Blue Ribbon Schools 2024

[Anonymous]

Congrats to DC Bilingual and Payne!

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-congratulates-two-district-schools-recognized-2024-national-blue-ribbon-schools

Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that two schools in the District of Columbia have been recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2024 by the U.S. Department of Education: DC Bilingual Public Charter School and Payne Elementary School.

[Anonymous]

That's great! Congrats to those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's great! Congrats to those schools.

Thanks for sharing! Good things happening at both of those schools.

[Anonymous]

It is really amazing how closely the gentrification arcs of L-T and Payne mirror each other.

[Anonymous]

Congrats to these schools. Neither are particularly high performing, but seem to be well run and good at meeting the needs of at-risk kids. Probably solid choices for most kids!

[Anonymous]

Congrats to both schools!

[Anonymous]

Congrats to Payne and good job Hill parents tol in investing in neighborhood schools! JOW parents you are next

[Anonymous]

Did Payne get an award for its inboundary gentrifiying?

Their application highlight is that the school was 99.9% Black in 2016. It’s 50% Black now.

https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/assets/winning/asset/2024/school_application/24dc101pu_payne_elementary_school_finalapplication.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Payne get an award for its inboundary gentrifiying?

Their application highlight is that the school was 99.9% Black in 2016. It’s 50% Black now.

https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/assets/winning/asset/2024/school_application/24dc101pu_payne_elementary_school_finalapplication.pdf

lol that’s one way to do it. Do you have the application for DCB also? They’ve had a huge demographic shift over the last few years as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Payne get an award for its inboundary gentrifiying?

Their application highlight is that the school was 99.9% Black in 2016. It’s 50% Black now.

https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/assets/winning/asset/2024/school_application/24dc101pu_payne_elementary_school_finalapplication.pdf

No, it’s because IB white families started sending their kids there. So now the demographics better match the neighborhood which is more equitable (or so we were told during the last boundary study!)

[Anonymous]

Is Blue Ribbon an award you can only win once?

It feels like tons of schools have won over the years, but it’s always several new schools year-to-year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did Payne get an award for its inboundary gentrifiying?

Their application highlight is that the school was 99.9% Black in 2016. It’s 50% Black now.

https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/assets/winning/asset/2024/school_application/24dc101pu_payne_elementary_school_finalapplication.pdf

lol that’s one way to do it. Do you have the application for DCB also? They’ve had a huge demographic shift over the last few years as well.

If you look at the criteria for why schools are selected on this link, it looks like they need to meet a couple different measures/qualifications. It looks like one of which is that all subgroups need to score above a certain threshold. I'm not as familiar with DCB but I know Payne has been awarded the Bold Performance schools here in DC because they do a better job than some schools across all demographics, not just certain subgroups.

So yes, I am sure gentrification helped but I think the school is doing good things across the board as well.

https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/faq/#:~:text=To%20be%20eligible%20for%20nomination,e.g.%2C%20student%20growth%20on%20state

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to these schools. Neither are particularly high performing, but seem to be well run and good at meeting the needs of at-risk kids. Probably solid choices for most kids!

Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Blue Ribbon an award you can only win once?

It feels like tons of schools have won over the years, but it’s always several new schools year-to-year.

Yes. It's a huge national level honor that often means a school is becoming excellent and has good morale. It's not something you try to keep or can keep year to year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did Payne get an award for its inboundary gentrifiying?

Their application highlight is that the school was 99.9% Black in 2016. It’s 50% Black now.

https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/assets/winning/asset/2024/school_application/24dc101pu_payne_elementary_school_finalapplication.pdf

lol that’s one way to do it. Do you have the application for DCB also? They’ve had a huge demographic shift over the last few years as well.

If you look at the criteria for why schools are selected on this link, it looks like they need to meet a couple different measures/qualifications. It looks like one of which is that all subgroups need to score above a certain threshold. I'm not as familiar with DCB but I know Payne has been awarded the Bold Performance schools here in DC because they do a better job than some schools across all demographics, not just certain subgroups.

So yes, I am sure gentrification helped but I think the school is doing good things across the board as well.

https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/faq/#:~:text=To%20be%20eligible%20for%20nomination,e.g.%2C%20student%20growth%20on%20state

100%. I think there are two parts to making a school "successful" for the purposes of these standards. Gentrification/changing demographics makes it easier to show growth across population groups, even at-risk kids because it's easier to bring up kids when there is a larger higher performing cohort already in the classroom. But you need a strong school to actually bring those kids up. Strong administrators attract and retain strong teachers, and can implement innovative solutions that go beyond the standard curriculum (or can choose good curricula if the LEA is a charter and has that flexibility). A school that's 90% or greater at-risk is going to be focusing so much energy on wrap around supports before you even get to classroom instruction and actual academics. And those kids just have so much else going on that getting them clean, fed, dressed, and in school is a major (and worthy!) accomplishment for the school. On the flipside, a school could have all of the "right" demographics and struggle to retain teachers or implement programs and solutions consistently. So the higher SES students will do well despite the school, and the higher risk students will continue to struggle.

But Blue Ribbon School designation absolutely shows that a school is doing something right, and doing it better than most other similar schools. It's a good sign you'll find happy teachers and happy kids, which at the elementary level is 90% of the battle.