Any successful basketball team is made up of players motivated to come to practice every day, set new goals, and achieve personal bests. Getting students excited about coming to school and learning is no different, the staff at Hughes Elementary School in Marshall has found.

In 2012 the state flagged Hughes as a Focus School for the gap between its highest- and lowest-achieving students. The school has since lost the label and continued improving through building-wide data analysis and conferencing by teams of teachers, support staff, interventionists and classroom assistants.

The result: double-digit increases in M-STEP scores for a school where 52% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch and 68% are at-risk. Hughes Elementary was named a 2024 National Blue Ribbon School in the “Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools” category.

“As a basketball coach you always want your kids to come to practice and practice how you want them to play in the game,” said Lance Hawblitz, a fourth-grade teacher at Hughes, former high school basketball coach and co-president of his local union.

“When it comes to these online assessments, we want them to take those tests and try as hard as they can. They have the mentality that, ‘This is my opportunity to show how much I’ve learned this year.’”

In 2024, average reading proficiency for the school’s students in grades 3-5 increased from 48% in 2018 to 66%, far exceeding the average 49% reading proficiency for a school with similar demographics and the 46% statewide average.

Average math proficiency for Hughes students in grades 3-5 improved from 38% in 2018 to 71% this year, easily outpacing the average math proficiency of 45% for a school with similar demographics and the statewide 34% average.

The school has adopted new curricula, materials, and strategies. Students get many opportunities to express themselves through writing, and the whole child is valued with a balanced education that includes physical education, art, social-emotional learning, music and technology.

Teachers credit “spiraling” of concepts, in which lessons are retaught and revisited as students are asked to synthesize learning, for improving student mastery in core subjects. Other shifts have been as simple as reading high-interest books as a class, or taping multiplication tables to desks so students can focus on more complex concepts.

“We don’t get hung up on one multiplication fact when we’re trying to bust out a multi-step problem,” explained Colleen Williams, who teaches fifth-grade math and fourth-grade social studies at Hughes. “I think it makes them feel a little more positive and optimistic about these big math problems we’re doing.”

Everyone works together toward a common goal, Hawblitz said: “It comes from the entire Hughes staff. They come here and they want to help our students learn and grow, not just as learners, but as people as well.”

Twelve Michigan schools were named National Blue Ribbon Schools, and Pellston Elementary School in Emmet County’s Pellston Public Schools similarly earned an award as an “Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing School.”

For a full list of current National Blue Ribbon Schools visit nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov.