President's Education Awards Program
Recognizing Students By Honoring Their
Achievement
The Presidential Academic Fitness awards:
Setting academic goals
While schools, parents, and communities can do much to
promote excellence, it really is up to each student to
achieve excellence. The President’s Commission counsels
students: "Even with your parents' best efforts, in the end
it is your work that determines how much and how well
you learn. When you work to your full capacity, you can
hope to attain the knowledge and skills that enable you to
create your future and control your destiny."
The Presidential Academic Fitness Award challenges the
individual student to have high expectations, to work hard,
and to develop discipline in study habits. Excellence does
not come easy. Anyone who has trained for a competitive
event or embarked upon a strenuous physical fitness
program knows that, to a great extent, discipline is as
important as size, speed, or innate ability. Just as Olympic
hopefuls set goals, students can set academic goals--to
wherever their minds and academic abilities can lead them.
Students are eligible for one of two honors: the President's Award
for Educational Excellence or the President's Award for
Educational Achievement. For each award students receive
certificates signed by the President, the U.S. Secretary of Education
and Mrs. Schultz. A congratulatory letter from the President is
included with the awards. Awards are given to students who are
graduating from elementary school, middle school, and high school.
ELEMENTARY SELECTION CRITERIA
The purpose of this award is to recognize
academic success in the classroom.
PRESIDENT'S AWARD FOR EDUCATIONAL
EXCELLENCE
To be eligible for the President's Award for
Educational Excellence, students must meet the requirements in
Category A and Category B.
A. Grade Point Average: Students are to earn a grade point average
(gpa) of 3.5 on a 4 point scale, (A = 4, B = 3, etc). Note: Elementary
schools are not to include K-3 in their computations, so the 3.5 gpa is
from fourth grade and the first two trimesters of fifth grade.
B. Standardized Achievement Test: Achievement in the 85th
percentile or higher in math or reading is required. Use the statewide
testing method as part of the criteria.
PRESIDENT’S AWARD FOR EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT is
awarded when an elementary student in the Chippewa Falls School
District has maintained a 3.5 grade point average as above, but has
not met the Standardized Achievement Test percentile score in reading
and/or math.
This award should not be compared to the President's Award for
Educational Excellence or be seen as a second tier award. It is meant
to encourage and reward students who work hard and give their best
effort in school.
The school principal has final authority to determine which
students receive this award.