In 2013, St. Andrew the Apostle School embarked on the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence journey which included surveying all stakeholders, a school visit by the Blue Ribbon School Review Team, and focus group meetings with students, teachers, and parents. After a three-day visit, reviewing essential survey and school data, a proposal was submitted to the committee at Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence. St. Andrew the Apostle School was awarded recognition as a Blue Ribbon Lighthouse School of Excellence.
The Blue Ribbon Lighthouse School Award is a recognition program for schools of excellence. Schools are identified and selected for this award based on the achievement of excellent performance in all nine major categories of the Blueprint for Excellence assessment. St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic School was first honored in an awards ceremony at the annual Blue Ribbon Schools Blueprint for Excellence Conference in December 2013. St. Andrew continues to maintain the recognition and was renewed as a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in December 2018.
Accreditation is a set of rigorous protocols and research-based processes for evaluating an institution’s organizational effectiveness. Accreditation is both a significant achievement pronouncing an institution’s quality of education, as well as a remarkably enriching process for the institutions recognizing the tremendous competitive and performance gains it affords.
Cognia accreditation examines the whole institution – the programs, the cultural context, the community of stakeholders – to determine how well the parts work together to meet the needs of students. It is a voluntary method of quality assurance designed primarily to distinguish schools adhering to a set of educational standards. The accreditation process is known in terms of its ability to effectively drive student performance and continuous improvement in education.