Two Idaho elementary schools garnered national recognition Monday.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos named Madison School District’s Lincoln Elementary School and Lakeland School District’s Garwood Elementary School National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2018.
The award “recognizes public and private elementary, middle, and high schools based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups,” the U.S. Education Department’s website says.
Both schools are covered by Title IA, a federal program that provides extra funding to schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families. Garwood’s free-and-reduced lunch population was 38 percent last school year. Lincoln’s was 35 percent.
Statewide, about 47 percent of students were eligible for lunch subsidies in 2017-18.
According to State Department of Education numbers, Lincoln Elementary outperformed 92.6 percent of other Idaho schools in the percentage of students meeting or exceeding proficiency in both English language arts and math in 2017. Garwood Elementary outperformed 88.6 percent of other Idaho schools by the same measure.
The schools were among 349 schools recognized nationally.
DeVos will celebrate with all honorees at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. next month, the State Department of Education said in a statement.
Lincoln elementary is located in Rexburg, roughly 30 miles north of Idaho Falls. Garwood is located in Rathdrum, about 15 miles northeast of Coeur d’ Alene.
