All of Southside Elementary School’s students gather in the gymnasium wearing blue, but they don’t know why.

Southside Elementary School is a nominee to be a 2023 National Blue Ribbon School, Principal Scott Schiller tells the crowd. This means that out of roughly 130,000 total schools in the United States including 65,000 elementary schools nationwide and 294 statewide, their school was chosen to be recognized as one of the best in the state.

Schiller tells the gymnasium full of students that “it’s really good if you get asked to apply to be a Blue Ribbon School once.” He looks at the anxious students.

“It’s really good if you get asked to be a Blue Ribbon School…”

“Twice,” they shout back. 

Southside Elementary was last awarded a blue ribbon in 2014 — at least five years must pass before a school can be nominated again. 

The students still don’t know if they are one of the United States’ best schools of 2023.

Instructional Facilitator David Galindo cues the announcement video where Cindy Marten, U.S. Secretary of Education announces the 353 schools that made the cut.

“On behalf of Secretary Cardona and the entire team at the U.S. Department of Education, I'm proud to officially designate your school as a 2023 National Blue Ribbon School,” Marten says. “We recognize and honor your hard work — intellectual, physical and emotional — in preparing all students to realize their talents and their dreams.”

The students hold their breath while Galindo skips to Southside’s place in line. They had made it. The hundreds of students gathered in Southside Elementary were in one of the country’s best schools. They hoot and holler, grab each other by the shoulders and demonstrate uninhibited pride for their school. 

As they leave they all get Oreo cookies, because as Schiller reminds them, they’re all smart cookies.

In order to be designated a Blue Ribbon School, schools must first be nominated by their chief state school officer, according to the National Blue Ribbon Schools webpage. Southside Elementary was nominated as an Exemplary High Performing School — to be considered for a nomination the school must be within the top 15% in their state for whole school performance and top 40% in their state for subgroup performance.

The National Blue Ribbon Schools first began recognizing schools in 1982 and has issued 10,000 awards to more than 9,700 schools. Schools are either recognized based on academic performance or “their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.”