National Blue Ribbon Winner

National Blue Ribbon Winner!
Blue Ribbon

This past spring, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) nominated Davenport High School to be selected for the National Blue Ribbon Schools Award. This award recognizes schools for academic excellence or for their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. Only seven schools in the entire state were nominated.

On September 26th, The Davenport Middle and High Schools were officially awarded the National Blue Ribbon Award. This is how Middle and High School teacher Taunya Van Pevanage described our school to the U.S. Department of Education:  


Our school motto "Once a Gorilla, Always a Gorilla" embodies the strong sense of community and pride that permeates the culture of our PreK-12 District. Our small 6-12 secondary school, the heart of our rural farming community, is not limited by our size, but rather is strengthened by the dedication that every member of our system feels.

Our school culture inspires us to dream big for our students, graduating 100% of our 2018 senior class and consistently outperforming the state on academic tests despite our increasing poverty data.

Our school culture challenges us to expand our students' opportunities by creating partnerships that add programs like Project Lead the Way, Construction Trades, and Certified Nursing Assistant certification.

Our school culture motivates us to keep striving for excellence by implementing Response to Intervention strategies, offering a selection of creative and performing arts courses (including an annual staged musical production), and adding Advanced Placement and College in the High School courses to our curriculum.

Our school culture fosters teacher communication focused on impacting student learning through weekly cross-grade and cross-curriculum professional learning community endeavors.

But most importantly, our school culture values every member and maintains a growth mindset to support each individual - whether a student, teacher, support staff, administrator, or parent- on his/her path toward our goal of creating endless possibilities for our students through the options and opportunities we provide every day at Davenport Middle/High School.