what are these school awards?

By Joyce Szuflita
I see lot of awards around these days. Principals get Cahn Fellowships, teachers get Blackboard Awards, schools get the Broad Prize and then there are those signs outside of schools with A+ on them (they are just a commercial school sign template).

I was curious when I heard that PS 110 in Greenpoint was the first public school in NY City to be awarded the New York State ASCD, “Educating the Whole Child in the 21st Century” Award. This award recognizes schools that support education that is healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged.

This year applicants submitted a comprehensive application, which was then reviewed by nine raters of the NYS ASCD Influence Committee. An extensive rubric involving 38 criteria was used to assess the school’s work across the five tenets. Schools identified as being strong candidates for the award were then observed by a Site Visit Team who verified the information on the application and interviewed a cross section of the staff, students, parents, and community liaisons.

In June of 2011, when Mr. John Whaley, the Vice President of the NYS ASCD presented the award, he said,

“This school knows the meaning of the whole child. It is not about test scores or homework turned in. While those are important and the state of NY will always judge us on our performance, you know that there is o so much more that goes into a making a child successful in life. You give your all, to every child, every day. The

students that walk through these doors are better citizens because they are here.”