ATLANTA, Texas - Atlanta Elementary School is one of the 13 campuses in Texas to be nominated for 2021 National Blue Ribbon school honors as Exemplary Achievement-Gap-Closing Schools.
Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Education Agency announced the nominations on Feb. 11. Abbot said the schools selected exemplified academic excellence.
Initiated by the U.S. Department of Education in 1982, the Blue Ribbon program recognizes public and private elementary, middle and high schools that have high student achievement and/or highlights where exemplary progress has been made in closing achievement gaps among student subpopulations. Since the program's founding, 9,000 schools across the nation have received this prestigious designation.
Principal Dena deferred all credit to her staff and students for this accomplishment - which was the first Blue Ribbon nomination Atlanta ISD has had.
"That's big to us, to even just be nominated," McCord said. "Our dream is to be the best school possible. Our kids are incredible. And our staff - I've been in this business 27 years, and I work with some of the best people I've ever worked with. They're awesome."
She said this recognition could be traced back to daily motto, which encourages students to shoot for the stars.
"Every single day, we have a motto at our school: Work Hard, Dream Big," she said. "Everyday at the end of our announcements, I say, 'What do we do at Atlanta Elementary School?' And every kid and teacher says, 'We work hard, and we dream big.' I just think that epitomizes the mindset we have. We can do anything we want to do if we work hard enough."
Becoming a school with a consistent tradition of being a Blue Ribbon School is now the goal, she said.
"We want to try to make it a tradition," McCord said. "We now have the process where we are pulling all of our data and filling out the application, as we speak - working on trying to get the award. We would love to be able to be named a Blue Ribbon School. That is our dream. So, we're working hard to make that happen."