Liberty Intermediate and Jackson Elementary have been named Four-Star Schools, the state’s highest honor in education.

The Indiana Department of Education on Thursday announced that 177 public schools in Indiana achieved the Four-Star designation for the 2006-07 school year. The award is given to the schools with the highest ISTEP scores and highest attendance rates.

In Porter County, 14 schools received the honor. In addition to the Duneland School Corporation, the designated schools are in Valparaiso, East Porter County, Boone Township and Porter Township school corporations.

Liberty Intermediate achieved the honor with a proficiency score of 59 in the math portion of the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress and a score of 58 in ISTEP’s English/language arts portion. The percentage of students who passed both tests was 78. Further, LIS had an attendance rate of 96.96 percent.

Jackson Elementary achieved the honor with a score of 62 in ISTEP’s math portion, and a score of 68 in English/language arts. Passing both portions of ISTEP was 81 percent. Jackson’s attendance rate was 97.14 percent.

"We are proud of these schools for their exceptionally high performance,” said Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to recognize so many Indiana schools for their achievements and encourage all schools to continue striving for this accomplishment.”

A total of 1,811 public schools were eligible for the Four Star designation. To earn the distinction, a school must be accredited by the Indiana State Board of Education, meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as defined by The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), and perform in the top 25 percent of all the schools in the state in each of the following four areas: student attendance rates, mathematics proficiency scores, English/language arts proficiency scores, and the percent of students passing both English/language arts and mathematics.

The annual award is non-monetary. Schools earning the honor receive an award certificate.

The other Porter County schools to get the honor were:

Valparaiso School Corp.: Benjamin Franklin Middle School and Central, Flint Lake, Cooks Corners, Hayes Leonard, Memorial, and Northview elementary schools.

East Porter County: Morgan Elementary, Morgan Middle/High School, Kouts Middle/High School.

Porter Township: Boone Grove High School.

Boone Township: Hebron High School.

Elsewhere in Northwest Indiana, the Gary schools and the Crown Point schools each had one elementary school achieve the honor, while the Lake Central school corporation had two elementary schools designated.

Posted 2/15/2008