The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education notified 186 schools that they had received Washington Achievement Awards for 2010.

Oak Harbor’s Olympic View Elementary and Coupeville High School both made the list.

“In many ways, recognizing our best schools is one of the most important things we do at the state level,” State Board of Education Chair Jeff Vincent said in a news release. “Spotlighting best practices is not only a celebration of our most successful schools, but also provides an opportunity for all of us to learn what those schools are doing right and how we might incorporate those same successful strategies in other schools across the state.”

Awards are given out for seven categories: overall excellence, language arts, math, science, extended graduation rate, improvement and closing achievement gaps. 

Olympic View Elementary School, having already won two state awards, was selected for closing achievement gaps. In 2009, the elementary was placed on the school improvement list for not making adequate yearly progress, the state testing bar set by the federal government. However, this year, the school made AYP in every category during standardized testing this spring, beating out many state averages.

Coupeville High School was awarded for overall excellence. According to the superintendent’s website, this honor is given to “schools whose overall two-year (test score) average puts them in the top 5 percent.”

“This is a big deal,” Coupeville Superintendent Patty Page said.

For more information about the awards, visit the Washington Achievement Awards website. No island schools made the cut in 2009.