Burwell Elementary Wins National Award
September 25, 2013
When You Do Good Things, Good Things DO Happen! This fall it was announced that Burwell Elementary School was one of 286 schools across the United States to be honored as a National Blue Ribbon School for 2013. We are one of five Nebraska schools to receive this distinction: Wisner-Pilger Elementary School,
Wakefield Elementary, Ord Elementary, St. Patrick’s Catholic School-Elkhorn, and Burwell Elementary. Talk about Good things happening, WOW!
The award process began with a request from the U.S. Department of Education for nominations from the top educational official in every state. Burwell Elementary was nominated by the Nebraska State Department of Education in November, 2012. The application was completed and sent in February, 2013 with the application being accepted in April, 2013 and on September 24th, Burwell Elementary was recognized as a Blue Ribbon School.
The 286 schools fall into one of two performance categories. The first category is “Exemplary High Performing,” in which schools are recognized among their state’s highest performing schools, as measured by state assessments (NeSA tests). The second category is “Exemplary Improving,” in which schools that have at least 40% of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds demonstrate the most progress in improving student achievement levels as measured by state assessments. We are in the first of these categories, “Exemplary High Performing.”
The Burwell community is a large part of this award! Without Burwell’s continual support with time and resources, the elementary students would not have been able to perform at the level that they did. Elementary Principal Gordon Goodman said, “There are 98,817 public schools in the United States. Our elementary school is in the top 286 across the nation. This is a huge honor for our students, staff, and community. We truly are the best of the best. And when WE did good things---Good things happened!”
