Three Maine schools were named national Blue Ribbon Schools this week by the U.S. Department of Education.

The schools are Falmouth Middle School, Embden Elementary School and Mount Desert Elementary School in Northeast Harbor.

They are among 320 schools across the country that received the honor this year because they are academically superior and showed dramatic gains in student achievement, according to a department news release.

Now bestowed under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the award has been given to more than 5,800 schools in the last 26 years.

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