More than twenty Evansville-area schools have received the Four Star School designation from the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE).
The Diocese of Evansville's schools dominate. Eleven local Catholic schools made the list for the 2017-2018 school year. Among them are Reitz Memorial High School and Mater Dei High School.
"Catholic schools provide students with an academically rigorous and doctrinally sound program of education," Diocese of Evansville Superintendent of Schools Daryl Hagan wrote in an email to WNIN.
Warrick County schools are also well represented. Castle High School was named a Four Star School along with a handful of elementary and middle schools.
North Posey High School, Gibson Southern High School, Signature School, and Evansville Christian School round out the list.
A school must receive an "A" on the state’s accountability scale to be named a four-star school. At least 95 percent of students also need to sit for the ISTEP exams. Pass rates must be in the top 25 percent.
No school in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) received the designation. That’s a change from the year prior, when two EVSC elementary schools made the list: Oak Park Elementary and Scott Elementary.
An EVSC spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.
According to IDOE, 234 schools received the award statewide. Read the full list below: