The Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Program is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to assessing the quality of academic and instructional programs and developing school-wide action plans to ensure measurable student achievement. The program assists all schools, with a special focus on low socioeconomic, culturally diverse, and low-performing communities of learning. BRSE also supports effective comprehensive school reform through the development and implementation of a web-based Interactive Library of Best Practices, K-12. The BRSE Program develops and supports educational policies that improve student performance and enable positive school reform.
The BRSE reform effort is very different from earlier reform programs because it utilizes a non-invasive, non-threatening approach to improvement, encompasses the entire learning community, gathers and shares best practices from high-performing schools, and includes continuous guidance and support. The BRSE Blueprint for Excellence, designed for replication, is modeled after the United States Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools Program. The Blueprint for Excellence criteria are the result of over 20 years of research about what it takes to become a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. The Blueprint for Excellence is a positive, collaborative school reform process designed to further school improvement.