What is a IL Governors blue ribbon and who does it serve?

Illinois lowered academic standards and weakened school accountability, then asked parents to trust a familiar-sounding Blue Ribbon as evidence of excellence.

The National Center for Education Statistics reported there are 4,408 public and 1,230 private schools in Illinois in 2021 or 2022, so what prompted Illinois’ Governor to award Blue Ribbons to just 24?

The award is said to come through two different pathways. High Performing recognizes schools demonstrating high levels of academic achievement and Achievement Gap Closing recognizes schools for narrowing achievement gaps between student groups.

All sixteen 2026 public school winners experienced decline in at least one measure of proficiency or growth for ELA or math.  Eleven of 16 had declines in ELA, and three of sixteen had declines in all four academic measures.

Of the nine schools awarded through the High Performing pathway, seven had received ISBE’s Exemplary designation in both 2025 and 2026 and most of those had declines in two or more measures.  Two moved from Commendable to Exemplary after ISBE changes to the school accountability process.

Seven public schools received the award through the Gap Closing pathway.  ISBE describes qualification this way:

“Show significant improvement over time for identified student groups. Demonstrate that student performance is improving faster than statewide averages. Meet key participation, graduation (when applicable), and data stability requirements. Reflect Illinois’ commitment to educational equity and opportunity. This pathway focuses on growth and progress, not just overall achievement levels.”

One might expect the award comes from closing gaps by increasing proficiency in an underperforming group – not so.

For example, students at Brookview Elementary D205 learned at rates lower than the state average (50%) and had declines in both ELA and math - math proficiency the lowest (37.4%) among all blue ribbon winners even after cut scores were lowered in 2025.

For math at Brookview, the gap widened between low-income students and their non low-income peers, going from 13.6% to 20.7%; a decline in low-income proficiency explaining most of the change.  The gap closed between Black and White students, 34.8% down to 30.4% with both groups experiencing declines in proficiency; Black students falling from 21.3% to 20.6% and White students 56.1% to 51%. Like math, declines in ELA proficiency at Brookview Elementary explain the smaller gaps for the same group comparisons.

Brookview isn’t alone in receiving the governor’s recognition for smaller proficiency gaps corresponding with lower proficiency between the groups compared.  At Dawes, the ELA gap between Black and White students narrowed slightly after proficiency declined for both groups: White students falling 2.4% and Black students 2.1%. Some other comparisons are not possible based on low enrollment numbers and suppressed data.

The Illinois State Board of Education describes the IL Governors Blue Ribbon award this way: “The Governor’s Blue Ribbon School Award program honors public and private K-12 schools with exemplary academic performance.”

Illinois’ governor using lower standards to award blue ribbons to 0.3% of Illinois public schools begs the question – does this help students and parents or the schools and state officials celebrating?