Elmhurst School Gets Top National Honor

ELMHURST, IL – An Elmhurst elementary school got a top honor from the federal government this week.

Jefferson Elementary, which is on Crescent Avenue in southeast Elmhurst, was one of 18 schools in Illinois to receive a 2024 National Blue Ribbon award.

That's out of about 4,000 schools in Illinois.

"We are so excited that after a decade-long break, we have within Elmhurst a Blue Ribbon award," Superintendent Keisha Campbell said at Tuesday's school board meeting.

She said the Blue Ribbon award is one of the longest-running recognition programs in the U.S. Department of Education.

The award is based on overall academic achievement and progress in closing achievement gaps among diverse groups of students, Campbell said.

According to a district news release, the other schools that have received Blue Ribbon awards were York High School (1983), Edison Elementary (2010), Lincoln Elementary (1999, 2012), Bryan Middle School (2012) and Sandburg Middle School (2007, 2013).

Of Elmhurst's eight elementary schools, Jefferson has the third-lowest rate of students coming from low-income families, at 4 percent, according to the Illinois Report Card.

State records show that schools with lower low-income rates typically perform better academically.

Statewide, the low-income rate among students is 49 percent.

This year, two of the state's recipients of Blue Ribbon awards were private Catholic schools. Such schools usually don't report their percentages of low-income students.

Of the 14 other schools, 13 had lower rates of low-income students than the state average, ranging from 2 percent to 38 percent.

One Blue Ribbon school, H.H. Conrady Junior High in suburban Hickory Hills, was at 60 percent.