The Lamar County School District recently put on an impressive showing in the recent Mississippi Statewide Accountability System results, earning an “A” grade overall in the district.
On November 4, Oak Grove Lower Elementary School – one of the district’s highest-performing schools – made another impressive achievement, being honored as a 2022 National Blue Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education. The elementary school was one of only four schools in Mississippi and one of 297 schools across the nation to earn the honor.
“It is absolutely a prestigious award, and we’re just grateful to be recognized for the staff and the students,” said Steven Hampton, superintendent of the Lamar County School District. “And it’s not only the staff and students; it’s also the community and our parents, because they play a huge role in that too.
“It’s a great recognition of a lot of hard work, and so we’re just super proud to be one of only four schools in the state, and one of 297 schools in the nation. It’s a huge honor.”
The award, which annually recognizes exemplary public and non-public school, is given based on standards of excellence as evidenced by student achievement measures. The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is supported through an ongoing collaboration with the National Association of Elementary School Principals, Association for Middle Level Education and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
“For our recognition, it was for the increase in student achievement,” Hampton said. “So our staff at Oak Grove Lower last year put a lot of work into looking at where students (could improve).
“We were just coming off COVID, and they put a lot of work looking at where the gaps in the learning were, identifying those gaps, and revamping some of the curriculum to make sure we’re teaching a rigorous curriculum. It was just seeing where students are and working with students to get them to increase their learning and that sort of thing.”
The department of education recognizes all schools in one of two performance categories, based on student scores, subgroup student scores and graduation rates. Those categories are:
- Exemplary High-Performing Schools, which are among their state’s highest-performing schools as measured by state assessments or nationally-normed tests;
- Exemplary Achievement Gap-Closing Schools, which are among their state’s highest-performing schools in closing achievement gaps between a school’s student groups and all students.
“ There’s no secret to it, there was no magic bean, it was just a lot of hard work from the staff, the students, the parents and the community,” Hampton said. “This is actually the fifth time (the award has been given) in our district – Oak Grove High School has won it three times, Oak Grove Middle School received it one time, and this is the first time for Oak Grove Lower.”
The National Blue Ribbon Schools Award was instituted in 1982 By Secretary of Education Terrel Bell to bring recognize those schools and students across the nation excelled in certain categories. Although at first the program honored just secondary schools, it was later expanded to include primary schools as well.
Since the program’s inception, more than 9,000 schools have been honored as National Blue Ribbon Schools.
