Albuquerque School of Excellence celebrates Blue Ribbon award

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Students and staff at the Albuquerque School of Excellence took a break from the books Friday to celebrate.

“The big celebration is for the Blue Ribbon nomination we got, the award we got this past month that recognized our school for closing the achievement gap of students,” said Deena Aggad.

The Blue Ribbon award is a national recognition given to schools based on overall academic excellence or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.

“With COVID, it set a lot of students back,” Aggad said. “You know, our teachers offered tutoring after school every day to help with that learning gap. So it’s not what just happens in the classroom it’s also what happens after school, on the weekends, it’s a never-ending process.”

The Albuquerque School of Excellence is a tuition-free charter school and one of three New Mexico schools to win the Blue Ribbon award this year. The school is one of five charter schools in the state to ever win the award.