DATE: Sunday, July 13, 1997                 TAG: 9707130093

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: MACHIPONGO                        LENGTH:   71 lines

EASTERN SHORE SCHOOL EARNS BLUE RIBBON

Northampton Middle School is the only middle school in Virginia to win a blue ribbon from the U.S. Department of Education this year.

That's quite an achievement for a community where 70 percent of the school children live in poverty.

``I can't think of a better way to support the economic development of the county than to have a good school system,''' said Bill Zierden, principal of the middle school. ``To be recognized as a blue ribbon school says, yeah, we really are doing well.''

To win a blue ribbon, competition guidelines say a school must ``model excellence and equity.'' It must offer programs that meet the highest academic standards, have a supportive environment centered on learning, and produce results that are significantly above the average for comparable schools.

Zierden said the middle school decided to go for the blue ribbon in June 1996, three brief months before the application deadline. Administrators brainstormed throughout the summer, and 53 people - including staff, students and parents - contributed to the nomination package.

First the application was checked out by state education officials. Virginia forwarded eight nominations in the elementary/middle school group to the national competition.

About half the schools selected by their states were chosen for site visits by the U.S. Department of Education.

Stan Pestka, principal of a middle school in Connecticut, came to Northampton last March, right before spring break. His mission: to examine the school from top to bottom, to see if it was as good as the application made it look.

Before Pestka even got to the school, however, Zierden took him on a tour of the county.

``We hit the high spots and the low spots,'' said Zierden. ``I thought it was very important that he get a concept of the context in which the school works.''

Northampton has an uphill battle if it wants to educate all of its children. Compared to the state average, more than twice as many residents live in poverty, and twice as many have less than a ninth-grade education.

And, yes, the middle school students do poorly as a group on standardized tests. In its application, Northampton recommended that the Department of Education look at measures other than test scores to determine its effectiveness.

``Economics affects education,'' said Zierden. ``I wanted him to see it for himself.''

During his visit, Pestka talked nonstop to children, parents, custodians, bus drivers - anybody anywhere, said Zierden. Then he filed a 17-page report on the school to federal evaluators.

His conclusion: The middle school's application had understated the extent of collaboration, cooperation, spirit and persistence shared by the members of the school and the community.

The line between home and school was blurred, wrote Pestka, and it was difficult to tell where school stopped and the community began.

``This is a nurturing school that educated whole human beings,'' Pestka wrote in his report. ``Despite many quality of life issues in the community, goals, persistence and mutual respect have created a significant number of current opportunities, and paved the way for future progress.'' ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA photos/The Virginian-Pilot

From left, Paul Brown, 13, Jacklyn Farlow, 14, Amanda Bowen, 12, and

Stephanie Williams, 13, work together at Northampton Middle School

on the Eastern Shore. The school was the only Virginia middle school

to earn a blue ribbon from the U.S. Department of Education this

year.

Bill Zierden is the principal of Northampton Middle School, which

was cited for its cooperation with the community.

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