3 Clark County schools earn national Blue Ribbon designation

Marking her 10th year as principal of Rogich Middle School, Suzie Harrison couldn't name just one way the west valley campus earned a place on the nation's elite list of Blue Ribbon Schools.

The faculty at Rogich, near the 215 Beltway and Alta Drive, require struggling sixth-graders to take two math classes, offer a longer school day so students can enroll in a fine arts or language course and use a campus-wide literacy plan in all classes, even physical education and choir.

Each of those programs, Harrison said, helped raise overall student performance and close the achievement gap among low-income and minority students — two measures the U.S. Department of Education uses to designate schools as Blue Ribbon.

Only three schools in Nevada and 340 campuses across the nation earned that recognition last year, and Rogich joined the prestigious list on Tuesday. The federal education department also named Glen Taylor and Morrow elementary schools, both in Henderson, to this year's list of Blue Ribbon Schools.

"It's very heart-warming," Harrison said on Monday. "But it also validates the hard work that all of our teachers, our students, our office staff — the entire community — have done to achieve this."

During the 2013-14 school year, Rogich posted student proficiency rates in math, reading and science between 17 percentage points and 33 percentage points higher than the state average. And even as Rogich welcomes more students who participate in free and reduced meal programs or identify as English language learners, their proficiency rates more closely resemble that of the general student population.

"It's all about the culture," Harrison said. "We have a culture of high expectations and achievement. The teachers understand it, the parents understand the students want to do well.

"We really look at overall growth," she added. "Everyone starts from somewhere... It's not where you started. It's where you finish."

The U.S. Department of Education will recognize Rogich and this year's 334 other Blue Ribbon Schools at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in November.

Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton.