Evanston Catholic School Earns National Blue Ribbon School Award

EVANSTON, IL — The Academy of Saint Joan of Arc in Evanston earned a National Blue Ribbon School Award this year, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Tuesday.

The honor is based on a school's overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. It also validates the hard work of students, educators, families and communities in attaining scholastic achievement.

"This recognition shows how Catholic schools throughout Chicago and its suburbs are providing an excellent, well-rounded education for students,” said Greg Richmond, superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese. “The students and educators in these 10 schools worked hard to achieve this level of excellence.”

This could potentially the last year for the National Blue Ribbon program, as the U.S. Department of Education announced it would be discontinued. In an Aug. 29 letter to state education chiefs, the DOE encouraged individual states to create new recognition programs.

"Awards conceived by those closest to the communities and families served by local schools will do more to encourage meaningful reforms than a one-size-fits-all standard established by a distant bureaucracy in Washington, D.C," the letter read.

This year was a record-breaking year for Chicago Catholic schools, with 10 schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago informed they would receive the honor.

Those 10 schools are:

• Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy, Chicago
• Regina Dominican High School, Wilmette
• St. Giles School, Oak Park
• St. Matthias School, Chicago
• St. Therese Chinese Catholic School, Chicago
• St. John of the Cross Parish School, Western Springs
• St. Norbert School, Northbrook
• St. Anne Catholic School, Barrington
• The Academy of Saint Joan of Arc, Evanston
• Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart, Lake Forest

Since the program's inception in 1982, Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago have won more National Blue Ribbons than any other public or private school system in the nation. Non-public schools are eligible to be recognized if the school's students are in the top 15 percent in the nation in both reading and mathematics.