FLORENCE — A group of more than 100 people gathered at Carver Elementary School on Monday to help the school celebrate its latest achievement: being named a National Blue Ribbon School.
Carver is one of five schools in the state to be honored as a No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon School.
During the celebration, Tom Snyder, president of the school’s PTO, said he wasn’t surprised the school received the national honor and had met the all requirements for the distinction.
Snyder, along with Superintendent Larry Jackson, Florence School District 1 board members, and city, county and state officials, congratulated the school’s faculty, staff and students for being the only school in the district to reach the national status.
Dr. Cynthia Young, principal of Carver Elementary, said dedicated faculty, staff and parent involved have led to the school’s success.
“Our teachers have worked hard every year and they have high expectations (for our students),” Young said. “This staff is always willing to go the extra mile.
“The requirements for that national goal is going up every year, so our goals and expectations must go up every year,” she said. “For the last four years, we’ve met AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). We’ve exceeded district and state averages.
Young said the school has a terrific Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and that parents work hard to make the school a success.
“It’s all because of the hard work from faculty and staff. It’s (also) the home and the school working together,” she said.
Blue Ribbon Schools will be honored at an award ceremony Oct. 20-21 in Washington, D.C.
Young and Faith Hardison, a former Carver Elementary teacher, will attend the ceremony where they will be presented with a plaque and flag.
The NCLB-Blue Ribbon Schools Program, which is run by the U.S. Department of Education, recognizes public and private K-12 schools that are academically superior or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement, according to a press release issued by the state Department of Education.
The program was modified in 2001 so that the selection criteria would be consistent with NCLB goals.
Carver not only met the basic criteria, but also scored higher against those criteria than other state schools, according to the release.
All nominees had to have met AYP under NCLB for the 2005-06, 2006-07 and the 2007-08 school years to be eligible for recognition.
On the Web
Carver Elementary School, http://www.fsd1.org/carver
No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools Program, http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/index.html
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