The Department of Education has given the Blue Ribbon School award since 1982, but attention has recently been drawn to the fact that not all honored schools can actually claim stellar records of student achievement. Accordingly, the DOE recently announced that test scores and test score improvements will become a major component of the selection process. See "Changes afoot for Blue Ribbon Schools," by Jane Elizabeth, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 30, 2002. For an account of what was wrong with the old Blue Ribbon Schools program, see "In Praise of Mediocrity," by Tom Loveless and Paul DiPerna, Education Next, Summer 2001.
