Three elementary schools in the Renton School District have been honored by the Washington School Recognition Program, which highlights schools that “demonstrate exceptional progress in key areas of student success.”

Of the categories “Closing Gaps,” “Achievements” and “Growth,” Campbell Hill Elementary School, Hazelwood Elementary School and Highlands Elementary School have all been recognized for the latter. Each school will receive a banner to display their achievements.

“Achieving this honor is no small feat,” said Bill Kallappa, chair of the State Board of Education (SBE). “It takes a team of dedicated educators and administrators working together to ensure that their students have the knowledge they need to be successful. And it takes great students coming to school every day ready to learn.”

Campbell Hill Elementary School has been recognized in “growth for students in one or more racial or ethnic groups” and “growth for English Learner students.”

Hazelwood Elementary School has been recognized for “growth for all students,” “growth for students in one or more racial or ethnic groups and growth for low-income students” and “growth for students in Special Education and Achievement in ELA and Math.”

Highlands Elementary School has been recognized for “growth for students in one or more racial or ethnic groups.”

While all public schools in Washington state are eligible for these recognitions, only 16% of schools have been recognized for the 2023-2024 school year, totaling 406 schools.

The Washington School Recognition Program is a joint operations between the SBE, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee (EOGOAC).

The three categories of recognition are:

Growth: Schools recognized for growth have at least one student group that has shown some of the state’s largest annual gains across multiple measures, such as attendance, assessment scores, English Learner progress, graduation rates, or the percentage of ninth graders who successfully earned all their attempted credits.

Closing Gaps: Schools in this category have made significant progress in areas identified for improvement in previous school years. These areas may include English language arts and math assessment scores, English Learner progress, or graduation rates.

Achievement: These schools have the state’s highest performance in at least two key areas, including attendance, dual credit completion, assessment scores in English language arts or math, graduation rates, or ninth-grade credit attainment, and are above average across all reportable student groups on the 2025 Washington School Improvement Framework.