Houston reforms, often overshadowed, now in the limelight with Broad Prize
Philanthropist Eli Broad, left, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, right, congratulate Houston Independent School District Superintendent Terry Grier after announcing that Houston is the winner of the 2013 Broad Prize for Urban Education. (Photo by Diane Bondareff/Invision for The Broad Foundation/AP Images)
Houston has long been a darling of education reformers with its extensive and deeply rooted charter school network and experimentation with controversial ideas like merit pay for teachers. Still, the city’s efforts to shake up its education system tend to get less notice than places like New Orleans or Washington, D.C., where reforms have led to heated and sometimes vitriolic debates about the role of teachers unions, charter schools and accountability for teachers.
Houston is getting more attention lately, though, both good andbad, for its long-running reform agenda. One of its main local charter school networks is about to go national, and it just won its second Broad Prize at a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday after winning in the prize’s first year in 2002.
The Broad Prize recognizes advances made in student achievement in urban school districts. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presented the prize, which will pay for $550,000 in college scholarship money for Houston students.
Headed by Superintendent Terry Grier since 2009, the Houston Independent School District (HISD)