TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Fifty-five public schools throughout Kansas are being honored for doing well on state tests despite serving disadvantaged students.
The Confidence in Kansas Public Education Task Force identified the recipients of the 2011 Challenge Awards. The winners will be honored Wednesday at Junction City Middle School.
The state education department says the certificate recognizes reading and math test scores that are higher than what students living in lower-income households normally achieve.
Typically, students who qualify for free or reduced price lunches don’t fare as well on tests as their peers from more affluent families.
Task force chairman Charles Volland says the schools are to be commended for overcoming what he calls “the very real challenges that poverty poses to education.”