By Penny Tilghman
April 21, 2008

The Broad Foundation on April 2 announced the five school district finalists for the 2008 Broad Prize for Urban Education, an annual $1 million award given to honor urban school districts making the greatest progress in raising student achievement nationwide.

This year’s five finalists are:

• Houston Aldine Independent School (Mayor Bill White);

• Ft. Lauderdale Broward County Public School (Mayor Jim Naugle);

• Brownsville-Texas Independent School (Mayor Patricio M. Ahumada, Jr.);

• Long Beach Unified School (Mayor Bob Foster); and

• Miami-Dade County Public Schools (Mayor Carlos A. Alvarez).

The Broad Prize for Urban Education honors urban school districts that demonstrate the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among ethnic groups between high-and low-income students.

The winner of The Broad Prize, to be announced on October 14 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, will receive $500,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors. Each of the four finalist districts will receive $125,000 in scholarships.

“Mayors know that better schools make better cities,” said Conference of Mayors Executive Director and CEO Tom Cochran in response to the announcement. “As they work to more effectively align city policies and programs that affect children and families, mayors are taking on an increasingly stronger leadership role on issues related to public schools. I’m delighted these strong mayors have been selected as finalists for this recognition in educational achievement.”

One commonality among this year’s finalists is that Hispanic students made notable gains in each district on multiple indicators. For example, Hispanic students in all finalist districts both outperformed and showed greater improvement than their peers in similar districts in their respective states. In addition, all five made inroads in minimizing achievement gaps between Hispanic students and their white peers.

This year, 100 of the largest urban school districts nationwide were eligible for The Broad Prize. The five finalist districts were selected by a review board of 19 prominent education researchers, policy leaders, practitioners and executives from leading universities, national education associations, think-tanks and foundations. The review board evaluated publicly available academic performance data compiled and analyzed by the leading educational consulting firm, MPR Associates, and selected the five districts that included:

• Academic performance and improvement on state exams compared with other districts in the state with similar low-income student populations;

• Closure of income and ethnic achievement gaps; and

• College readiness indicators such as graduation rates, SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement exam data

In the running for the 2008 Broad Prize are two neighboring school districts: Miami-Date County and Broward County, the nation’s fourth and sixth largest districts, respectively. This year’s finalists include three previous finalists, one of which is a former Broad Prize winner. This is Miami-Dade’s third consecutive year as a finalist. Additionally, Aldine has been one of the top five districts since the award’s inception in 2002. Long Beach, which won The Broad Prize in 2003, has been a finalist every year it has been eligible.

For more information about The Broad Prize, visit the website www.broadprize.org.