11/7/2019 • Norfolk, NE • Public Montessori School Receives National Blue Ribbon

11/7/2019 • Norfolk, NE • Lincoln Montessori, a public Montessori school in Norfolk, Nebraska, was named a 2019 National Blue Ribbon School. It is an extremely prestigious honor awarded to only the top schools in the country that are identified as “Exemplary High Performing.”

Lincoln Montessori serves 134 students kindergarten through fourth grade but has plans to expand and add classrooms in the coming years. This is the twelfth time a Montessori school has earned a Blue Ribbon Award. The last time was in 2016 when schools in Dallas, Texas and Okemos, Michigan were recognized. All of the awards have been for high performance except Drachman Montessori Magnet School, a public magnet school in Tucson, Arizona, which was recognized as an “Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing” school in 2015.

The Blue Ribbon award is an extremely high honor in the education world. Only a few hundred schools across the country are recognized. The program was started in 1982 by Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell and has honored the best schools nationwide every year since then.

Montessori National Blue Ribbon Award recipients, by year:

• 1986: Pines Montessori School, a private school in Kingwood, Texas, founded in 1977
• 1994: Joseph Montessori School Columbus, a private Catholic Montessori school in Columbus, Ohio, founded in 1968
• 1999: The Montessori Academy, a private school in Arlington, Virginia founded in 1981
• 2001: Near North Montessori School, a private school in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1963
• 2002: George Bannerman Dealey Montessori Academy, in the Dallas Unified School District (also in 2016)
• 2011: Rosenthal Montessori Elementary School, a public schoolin Alexandria, Virginia
• 2012: Park Road Montessori School Charlotte, a public magnet school in Charlotte, North Carolina, founded in 1992
• 2015: Harry Stone Montessori Academy, a public school inDallas 2015
• 2015: Drachman Montessori Magnet School, a public magnet school in Tucson, Arizona
• 2016: George Bannerman Dealey Montessori Academy (also in 2002)
• 2016: OkemosPublic Montessori at Central, a public school in Okemos, Michigan founded in 2002.
• 2019: Lincoln Montessori