ASTI Receives DoE Blue Ribbon Award

On September 23, ASTI was announced to be one of this year's winners of the US Department of Education National Blue Ribbon Award. Of the 133,000 public and private schools considered for the award nationally, 420 were nominated by their Chief State School Officers and only 356 received the award. After nomination, winners are determined based on excellence in athletics, academics, and the arts. ASTI was nominated for exemplary performance on state standardized tests and subsequently selected based on the above criteria. ASTI is a repeat winner of the National Blue Ribbon Award and last received it in 2015. Only two other schools in the district have received this decoration: Alameda High in 1993 and Amelia Earhart in 2005 and 2020. The Department of Education formally recognized the winning schools at a two-day awards ceremony starting November 7th in Washington D.C., which Ms. Corbally and Ms. Lebo-Planas attended as representatives. Ms. Corbally commented on the effort both students and staff put forward to earn this award. "Everyone here works; students, staff, student leaders, everybody works to create a space where students feel safe and comfortable learning, and where there's kind of a culture of learning." In a community as small as ASTI's, individual effort is very impactful on the school's atmosphere and performance as a whole. "They don't have to work that hard, but they do. … I just think it's really cool how students take ownership over the school and over their own work." Ms. Corbally said the school enjoyed a marked increase in freshman applicants after receiving the award and scored points with the new College of Alameda president. In D.C., Ms. Corbally described the opportunity to meet administrators of other high-performing schools like ASTI. Ms. Corbally: "It is just really exciting. It is an acknowledgement of how hard our students work because we got the high performing school category which is heavily based upon students' standardized test scores and so I think it's a testament to the teaching and the support and the community that we have a comfortable, safe place where students can learn. I think first and foremost, though, it's that the students actually sit down and take that test seriously and that they take the quality of work seriously. So I feel like that's what it reflects of our school. Everyone here works; students, staff, student leaders, everybody works to create a space where students feel safe and comfortable learning, and where there's kind of a culture of learning. I think students have gotten better over the years since I've been here at academic risk-taking… and being a lot more open and creative, I think that's especially been opening up since COVID. I think it's indicative of the consistent effort and work our students put in to doing quality work that they're going to be proud of. Because they all sat down on that test and did really well. They didn't have to do that. They don't have to work that hard. But they do. I think that's pretty cool, because they're 11th graders. They don't do it in 9th or 10th grade. They do it in 11th grade, when you've already been here for a couple years and are kind of student leaders. I just think it's really cool how students take ownership over the school and over their own work.