4 Houston-area schools earn prestigious Blue Ribbon award

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Four Houston-area schools have received the prestigious 2017 National Blue Ribbon School award, a federal honor recognizing superior academic achievement.

Eastwood Academy (Houston ISD), Lyons Elementary School (Houston ISD), KIPP Shine Prep and Jennie Reid Elementary School (La Porte ISD) were among the 26 Texas schools and 342 schools nationally to earn the honor.

“A commitment to successful student outcomes can be witnessed every day on National Blue Ribbon campuses across Texas,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement. “I congratulate this year’s Blue Ribbon honorees, which represent the good work taking place in our Texas public schools.”

Eastwood Academy is a high school in southeast Houston serving about 425 students, about 83 percent of whom are “economically disadvantaged,” according to state guidelines. The school-of-choice campus has an academic focus on engineering and cybersecurity. It was recognized for superior academic achievement.

Lyons Elementary School serves about 1,000 students, roughly half of them English Language Learners, on Houston’s north side. The campus also received a National Blue Ribbon School award in 2011.

KIPP Shine Prep, a charter school, is home to about 850 students from pre-kindergarten through the fourth grade on Houston’s southwest side. The campus was the first primary school in KIPP Houston’s network of charter schools, which now numbers 28.

Jennie Reid Elementary School has about 465 students from the bayside district. The campus ranked first in “closing performance gaps” out of its 40 state-designated comparison schools, which have similar demographics to Jennie Reid.