Three Alaska schools earned national Blue Ribbon status this week, a top honor awarded each year by the U.S. secretary of education.
The schools in Anchorage and Wasilla are among 362 public and private schools nationwide named 2019 National Blue Ribbon Schools for their work closing achievement gaps or for their overall academic excellence based on state and national test scores.
In Alaska, all three schools were recognized as “exemplary high performing.”
The winners from the Anchorage School District are Aurora Elementary School on Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson and O’Malley Elementary School on the Hillside. In the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, Fred and Sara Machetanz Elementary School in Wasilla earned the award.
More than 9,000 schools have received the Blue Ribbon award in the program’s 37-year history, including 50 from Alaska, some earning the distinction more than once. Aurora Elementary also got the award in 2013.
In November, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education will hold an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., for this year’s National Blue Ribbon Schools.