Opt-outs may cost McVey coveted Blue Ribbon award

McVey Elementary School was one of 19 schools nominated in January by the State Education Department for the Blue Ribbon award.

David Weingrad/Herald

McVey principal Kerry Dunne, seen above reading to students last year, said she spent 60 hours preparing an extensive application for Blue Ribbon status. She and 10 other principals sent a letter on June 30 to the U.S. Department of Education that criticized the use of test participation as an award criterion.

Courtesy the East Meadow School District

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In January, McVey Elementary School Principal Kerry Dunne learned that her school was one of 19 across the state that had been nominated for the coveted Blue Ribbon award, a national honor that singles out schools with a record of academic excellence.

Dunne estimated that she spent 60 hours preparing a 34-page application to submit to the U.S. Department of Education, which presents the awards.

But then she learned that McVey may be declared ineligible for the award, because it did not meet the state-mandated minimum rate of participation in April’s state assessment exams by third- through fifth-graders. That potential punishment, school officials say, is emblematic of a greater problem: the nationwide emphasis on high-stakes testing.

The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, instituted in 1982, “affirms the hard work of students, educators, families, and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students master challenging content,” the program’s website states. Its criteria also take into account schools’ results in state assessments.

Last year, 340 schools earned Blue Ribbon status. The East Meadow School District has received the award once: W.T. Clarke Middle School, in 2011.

State education departments submit nominations to the U.S. Education Department. But the program’s eligibility rules require nominated public schools to meet their states’ requirements for Annual Yearly Progress. In New York, that includes 95 percent participation in the English Language Arts and math assessments for three consecutive years, including the year the school is nominated. In April, 58 of McVey’s 341 test-eligible students in grades three to five opted out of the exams, giving the school a participation rate of just 83 percent.