Lemont High School Tabbed As A 2017 National Blue Ribbon School

LEMONT, IL — Lemont High School has been chosen out of 342 schools across the country to be recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School for 2017, having been selected as an Exemplary High Performing School. The school said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made the announcement on Thursday; the Department of Education has honored the nation's most outstanding schools since 1982 through the National Blue Ribbon Schools program.

According to LHS, less than 1/2 of one percent of the nation’s schools have been honored as 2017 National Blue Ribbon Schools. Lemont High School is one of 25 schools from Illinois – and one of just two Illinois public high schools – to earn the honor this year. Those two high schools, Lemont High School and Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, are the first traditional public high schools in Illinois to receive National Blue Ribbon School accolades since 2010, LHS said. Prior to this year, just 43 traditional public high schools in Illinois had received the honor since the inception of the program in 1982.

According to the release, Lemont High School, Neuqua Valley High School and Bloomington Central Catholic High School are the first Illinois high schools of any kind, including private schools, charter schools and magnet schools, to earn National Blue Ribbon School accolades since 2014.

Exemplary High Performing Schools are among their state’s highest performing schools as measured by state assessments or nationally normed tests, while Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools are among their state’s highest performing schools in closing achievement gaps between a school’s subgroups and all students over the past five years, according to the release.

“National Blue Ribbon Schools are active demonstrations of preparing every child for a bright future,” DeVos said in her announcement of the honorees. “You are visionaries, innovators and leaders. You have much to teach us: some of you personalize student learning, others engage parents and communities in the work and life of your local schools and still others develop strong and forward-thinking leaders from among your teaching staff.”

On Nove. 6-7, the Department of Education will celebrate with the 2017 National Blue Ribbon School honorees at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. According to the release, to earn the Exemplary High Performing Schools designation, schools must achieve in the top 15 percent of all schools in the state when ranked by student performance on the most recently administered English language arts and math state assessments, or by student performance on state assessments in combination with other student performance measures, such as attendance and/or graduation rates. The state may nominate a school only once within a five-year period.

Image provided by Lemont High School.