PAINTSVILLE — Porter Elementary is one of just three Kentucky public schools to be named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.

The announcement of the school’s section was made Monday The other schools were Trapp Elementary, in Clark County, and Rosa Parks Elementary, in Lexington.

Six private schools in the state were also on the list, including Rock Creek Elementary, in Louisville; Notre Dame Academy, in Park Hills; St. Henry High, in Erlanger; Saint James Catholic Regional School, in Elizabethtown; and Seton Catholic School, in Lexington.

Nationwide, 307 schools will be honored with National Blue Ribbon Schools awards, which recognize public and private P-12 schools that help students achieve at very high levels and for making significant progress in closing achievement gaps.

The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, honors public and private schools based on one of two criteria:

• Schools whose students are high-performing. These are schools among each state’s highest performing schools as measured by their performance on state assessments or, in the case of private schools, that score at the highest performance level on nationally normed tests.

• Schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that improve student performance to high levels as measured by the school’s performance on state assessments or nationally-normed tests.

All three of Kentucky’s newest Blue Ribbon Schools meet the requirements in the first category.

Representatives from each school will attend a recognition ceremony Nov. 12-13 in Washington, D.C.

Since the program’s revamping in 2003, 40 Kentucky public schools have been named Blue Ribbon Schools. More information on the program is available at http://www.ed.gov/nationalblueribbonschools.