(February 23, 2007) — On Feb. 14 and 15, a committee hired by the U.S. Department of Education visited Clark about our recent reception of the Blue Ribbon award. The company, RMC Research Corporation, sent three representatives to observe Clark and gather information for the Department of Education’s website. With fewer than 300 schools winning the Blue Ribbon award nation-wide, the Department of Education wanted a profile of how these schools attained their success. Intrigued by the presentation Principal Doug Dall, librarian Susan Newcomer and English teacher Maral Guarino gave in November in Washington, D.C., RMC Research decided to follow up on what factors contributed towards Clark’s success. Committee members toured the school on Feb. 14 and talked to one panel made up of students and another panel comprised of parents. Students were chosen from the junior and senior classes for their general levels of involvement in the school. The panel met in the Cybrary, where the committee members asked the students to share their feelings about Clark—both in the academic and social contexts. Topics ranged from how students felt Clark prepared them for real life to how students felt on their first day of school. The committee’s intention: to gather information for an article on model schools. Senior research assistants Susan Frankel and Kate Gill Kressley said they were impressed by what they saw. Specific things that jumped out at them included the “professional” displays in the halls and the way that students listened to both teachers and their peers. They were also impressed by the “sense of ownership” that students and parents had for Clark. The information the committee gathered will be put into an article for the Department of Education’s new Blue Ribbon website, which will be available some time in June.