CMS receives Challenge Award

Deena Horst, the District 6 representative on the Kansas State Board of Education, presented the 2021 Challenge Award to Concordia Middle School principal Curtis Noon during a ceremony Wednesday morning.
Created by the Kansas Confidence in Public Education task force, the Challenge Award recognizes schools for outstanding achievement and uncommon accomplishment based on Kansas math and reading assessment results as well as graduation rates, chronic absenteeism rate and the socio-economic status of taking the rest.
The Challenge Award recognizes Kansas schools that are making a notable difference in students' achievement despite facing significant challenges in their school population.
Since its inception in 2002, over 1,700 Challenge Awards have been presented to schools across the state.
The Confidence in Education task force is a non-profit corporation created in 1981 to promote cooperation among state education agencies. It is dedicated to strengthening confidence in public education and to increase awareness of the positive aspects of public education in the state.
The Challenge Award was created to honor students that performed well on the state assessments and had high percentages of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including those who live in poverty, and of members of a minority group.
Administrators and teachers have started to see the Challenge Awards as motivation to reach for higher levels of academic performance. The awards help showcase the many positive academic achievements taking place in schools with predominantly high-risk populations.