The Broad Foundation Announces 2010 Finalists for $2 Million Broad Prize; Five Urban School Districts Honored for Significant Student Gains
LOS ANGELES, April 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced today the five school districts that are finalists for the 2010 Broad Prize for Urban Education, an annual $2 million award that honors urban school districts making the greatest progress in America in raising student achievement.
Making a strong showing by southern states, this year's five finalists are:
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, N.C.
- Gwinnett County Public Schools outside Atlanta
- Montgomery County Public Schools, Md.
- Socorro Independent School District, El Paso, Texas
- Ysleta Independent School District, El Paso, Texas
The Broad (rhymes with "road") Prize for Urban Education is the largest education award in the country given to school districts that demonstrate the best overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among poor and minority students.
The winner of The Broad Prize, to be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 19 in New York City, will receive $1 million in college scholarships for high school seniors who will graduate in 2011. The four finalist districts will each receive $250,000 in college scholarships.
"At a time when public schools are in crisis, these five urban school districts are an example for other struggling districts because they have demonstrated that students can achieve and improvement is possible even in challenging times," saidEli Broad, founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. "It is our hope that other districts around the country will learn from the practices these five districts are employing that are leading to sustainable academic gains."
The finalists were selected by a review board of 18 prominent education researchers, policy leaders, practitioners and executives from leading universities, national education associations, think-tanks and foundations.
In the 2010 Broad Prize finalist districts, a higher percentage of African-American, Hispanic and low-income students performed at the highest achievement level on state assessments in reading and math than did their statewide counterparts in 2009. The districts also made progress in closing academic achievement gaps among minority and low-income students. Additionally, all five districts made notable gains in preparing students academically for college, as shown, for example, by increased participation rates by minority students on SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement exams.
Of the districts in the running for the 2010 Broad Prize, Gwinnett County and Socorro were finalists last year, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg was a finalist in 2004. Montgomery County and Ysleta are first-time finalists.