Hoboken School District Awarded Recognition by the BRSE Organization- Parsing Blue Ribbon Recognition

There has been a fair amount of information recently about the Hoboken public school district being the only district in New Jersey to have received a special distinction, determined that all five of the schools have "met the criteria to receive the 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Lighthouse Award,” which is recognition awarded by the BRSE organization. This achievement makes the Hoboken Public School District the first in New Jersey to have each school recognized as National Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Schools and to be named a 2024 Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Lighthouse District.

Just to clarify-this is not the same thing as the US Deptment of Education’s Blue Ribbon designation of the top 10% of schools. It’s an independent organization. This is an assessment schools pay for through a survey of who the school designates to include and an accompanying conference administrators can pay to go to ( you get to go for free depending on your assessment results) and then can be included in the company’s recognition. The name definitely causes some confusion-the founders captured the name during the brief time the Dept of Education took a hiatus from their invitation only program.

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Basically, this is a paid assessment done through a survey of self-selected respondents and the administrator gets to go to Disney https://blueribbonschools.com/ vs. https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov which is the United States Department of Education’s invitation only award program honoring high-performing schools. It could be misleading, given BRSE took that name. A close observation shows that BRSE's  own website states “*Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, Inc., claims no affiliation, nor endorsement, by the United States Department of Education – Blue Ribbon Schools Program”.

Bart Teal, the 80-something founder of BRSE, used to run a training camp via Nova Southeastern University for school districts that wanted to up their chances of getting the original US Dept of Education Blue Ribbon designation. When the DoE dropped the BR program for a short while in the early 2000s, Teal picked it up and began using a version of the Blue Ribbon name. On its website, the DoE currently gives this warning: "Please be aware that the U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon Schools program is not associated with the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Program, which is sponsored by a non-profit organization in South Carolina. Schools may be contacted by the South Carolina organization to participate in conferences and may be confused by the similar name."

On the DoE site, there are lists of current and previous holders of the Blue Ribbon title. The lists include all sorts of information about the winning schools. The BRSE, on the other hand, merely lists names of schools, like John F. Kennedy Elementary and West Elementary, not even the towns where they are located. Their "about us" is just a list of names, nothing clickable.

The similarity between the emblem for the "Lighthouse" Award (left) and the
US Department of Education emblem for being a "blue ribbon" school (right)
 is both deceptive and obvious

For $7900 you can participate in their school improvement and recognition program, where they will you survey your students (over 3rd grade reading), parents (they usually get 30%), admin and teachers & staff (the ones you CHOOSE!) via an online assessment. 

What possessed the Hoboken Board of Education and the superintendent to send tax money to this group???