Evening Street and Worthington Estates elementary schools were among 16 Ohio schools honored with the SOAR Award for High Progress at a reception at the Ohio School Board's Capital Conference on Monday. The award is designed to acknowledge schools with high progress in multiple grade levels and subjects during the past three years.

Evening Street and Worthington Estates are among the top 5 percent of schools (out of 457 eligible schools) making exceptional growth with their students. Governor Bob Taft; State Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Tave Zelman; Russ Austin, senior vice president of Battelle Memorial Institute; and Jim Mahoney, executive director of Battelle for Kids, attended the ceremony.

"These schools represent a diverse mix of the entire state -- geographically, socio-economically and academically -- by traditional achievement measures," said Mahoney. "These schools are proof that tremendous growth is occurring in all types of schools from a variety of districts. It's not about the students you have, but rather, what educators do with those students that makes a difference."

Each school was evaluated on 24 indicators of effectiveness in the three most recent school years, 2004-2006. Each grade and subject represents a indicator of effectiveness.

Additional criteria include: above average growth during 2004-2006, consistency in school effects across grades and subjects and above average school effects on common state-administered tests in 2006.