Assessment/Accountability
School and District Accountability

School Review

Commonwealth Compass Schools

Select Review Year: 2007 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |2001| View All

Established in 2001, the purpose of the Commonwealth Compass School Program is to recognize and celebrate improvement in Massachusetts public schools; gather and disseminate information and encourage networking and sharing of good ideas, best practices, and models for success; and identify schools that may participate in research of specific programs and instructional practices.

U.S. Department of Education Recognition and Dissemination Programs

The U.S. Department of Education (US ED) provides state school officers with specific quotas and eligibility criteria for levels of student performance and improvement for nomination to each of its recognition programs. While the application and selection processes are carried out directly by US ED, the nominations constitute advocacy of the school's selection for those programs by the state school officer. ESE uses its school and district accountability system-specifically, the Commonwealth Compass School Program-along with federal requirements to determine the nomination of schools.

Title I Distinguished Schools Recognition Program

For more than 16 years, US ED and the National Association of State Title I Directors have awarded national recognition to Title I programs showing a high rate of success in raising the level of achievement of low performing students.

Beginning in December 2002, the program has been administered by the Association of State Title I Directors. Each state education agency may nominate up to two schools for the Title I Distinguished School Recognition Program based on the following criteria:

1. One school should represent the Title I school with the highest score in reading and mathematics with the greatest percentage of students reaching proficiency.
2. The second school should be that school with the highest score of a Title I school that has made the most progress in closing the achievement gap among all groups in the school. The school selected should be cited as an example for a specific practice (instruction, extended hours, use of assessment information, etc.) that others can learn from in order to improve their program.
3. Schools that have been recognized within the last three years are eligible to apply.
4. All schools should have made AYP each of the previous three years or can cite some extraordinary change in the last two.

No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools Program

This US ED program was established to honor those elementary and secondary schools in the United States that make significant progress in closing the achievement gap or whose students achieve at very high levels.

In November of each year, state school officers are asked to nominate schools for the following year. Based on population, US ED allows Massachusetts to nominate 7 schools according to specific criteria.

More information on the No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools Program is available in the US ED web site at http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/awards.html.