Congratulations to Iowa's
Blue Ribbon Schools for 2011

Seven Iowa schools were named today by the U.S. Department of Education as 2011 National Blue Ribbon Schools based on their overall academic excellence or for their success in closing achievement gaps. The Department will honor the entire 256 public and 49 private schools with their National Blue Ribbon School awards at a conference and awards ceremony Nov. 14-15 in Washington, D.C.

Anita Elementary School
Anita Community School District 
Principal: Mr. Larry Hunt

Decorah High School
Decorah Community School District 
Principal: Ms. Kim Sheppard

Greene Elementary School
Greene Community School District
Principal: Mrs. Mary Oelmann

MOC-Floyd Valley High School
MOC-Floyd Valley Community School District
Principal: Mr. Russ Adams

St. Columbkille Elementary School
Holy Family System, Dubuque
Principal: Mrs. Barbara Roling

Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic School
Davenport
Principal: Mrs. Julie Delaney

Washington Elementary School
Muscatine Community School District
Principal: Mr. Brian Walthart

The schools were selected based on one of two criteria:  

1. Students are high performing. These are schools ranked among each state's highest performing schools as measured by their performance on state assessments or, in the case of private schools, that score at the highest performance level on nationally-normed tests; or 
2. At least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that improve student performance to high levels as measured by the school's performance on state assessments or nationally-normed tests.

 More information is available online from the U.S. Department of Education.