Located in Redmond, but part of the Northshore School District, Sunrise Elementary School has received the 2010 “School of Distinction” award and will be honored at a presentation ceremony from 5-7 p.m. Dec. 2 at the University of Washington Sanford Center.

Sunrise is one of 94 schools from across the state honored by the Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE) and Phi Delta Kappa-Washington State Chapter.

The award is based on improvement in combined math and reading over a period of five years, in this case, 2005-2010. School of Distinction winners have improvement rates among the top 5 percent in the state. Schools also need to have met or exceeded the performance of the state in both reading and math.

“Educators in these schools are creating systems of support for outstanding, sustained improvement in reading and math student performance,” stated Sue Mills, CEE’s executive director. “This award celebrates the multi-year improvement in both reading and math not recognized in the federal No Child Left Behind law or in the year-to-year calculation of Adequate Yearly Progress.”

Candidate schools for this award must be performing at least at the state-average performance in fourth-, seventh- and 10th-grade reading and math assessments, as measured on the Spring 2010 Measures of Student Progress. Schools meeting this requirement were evaluated on combined reading and math improvement on 2005 to 2010 state assessments. The top 5 percent of the elementary, junior high and senior high schools are recognized and win the designation of School of Distinction.