Eye on the Prize

Welcome to this special edition of Eye on the Prize: The Road to Broad. We are pleased to announce the five finalists for the 2008 Broad Prize for Urban Education.

2008 Finalists for $1 Million Broad Prize Announced

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced April 2 that the five school district finalists for the 2008 Broad Prize for Urban Education, an annual $1 million award that honors urban school districts across the country that are making the greatest progress in raising student achievement, are:

Aldine Independent School District, near Houston
Broward County Public Schools, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Brownsville Independent School District, on the Texas-Mexico border
Long Beach Unified School District, Calif.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools

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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 and between high- and low-income students.

The winner of The Broad Prize, to be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 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.

"While numerous urban school districts are struggling to prepare students today for the jobs of tomorrow, these finalists are demonstrating that academic progress in our cities is possible and is happening," said Eli Broad, founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. "Everyone involved, from parents to teachers to staff in these districts, can be proud of their success. Their progress in improving student achievement is a model for other districts around the country."

The Finalists: A Common Thread

One commonality among this year's finalists, all of which serve significant percentages of Hispanic students, 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 notable progress in narrowing achievement gaps between Hispanic students and their white peers.

Below are a few notable achievements of this year's Broad Prize finalist districts that helped push them to the top.

Aldine Independent School District
Between 2004 and 2007, SAT participation rates for Aldine's African-American and Hispanic students rose. Average SAT scores also increased -- by 23 points for African-American students and by 18 points for Hispanic students.

Broward County Public Schools
In 2007, Broward's African-American and Hispanic students achieved higher average proficiency rates than the state average for those student groups in reading and math at all grade levels (elementary, middle and high school).

Brownsville Independent School District
Between 2004 and 2007, Brownsville narrowed achievement gaps between its Hispanic students and the state average for white students and between its low-income students and the state average for non-low income students in reading and math at all grade levels.

Long Beach Unified School District
In 2007, Long Beach outperformed other California districts serving students with similar income levels in reading and math at all grade levels, according to The Broad Prize methodology.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools
In 2007, Miami-Dade's Hispanic students achieved higher average proficiency rates than their state counterparts in reading and math at all levels (elementary, middle, and high school).

In the running for the 2008 Broad Prize are two neighboring school districts: Miami-Dade 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, and the third time Aldine has been one of the top five districts since the Prize was first awarded in 2002. Long Beach, which won The Broad Prize in 2003, has been a finalist every year it has been eligible.

In addition to Long Beach, previous Broad Prize winners include the New York City Department of Education (2007); Boston Public Schools (2006); Norfolk Public Schools (2005), Va.; the Garden Grove Unified School District, Calif. (2004); and Houston Independent School District (2002).

Choosing the Finalists

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 MPR Associates, Inc., a leading national education research consulting firm, and selected the five districts that stood out in areas 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
College readiness indicators such as graduation rates, SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement exam data

Next Steps

Over the next two months, teams of educational researchers and practitioners led by SchoolWorks, an educational consulting company, will conduct site visits in each finalist district to gather qualitative information, interview district administrators, conduct focus groups with teachers and principals and observe classrooms. The teams will also talk to parents, community leaders, school board members and union representatives. A selection jury of prominent individuals from business, industry, education and public service will then review both the performance data and the qualitative site visit reports to choose the winning school district.

The Broad Prize Partners

MPR Associates, Inc., one of the nation's leading education research consulting firms, is committed to strengthening elementary, secondary and postsecondary education and to expanding opportunities for youth and adults. MPR Associates manages the rigorous Broad Prize selection process. For more information, please visit www.mprinc.com.

SchoolWorks is an educational consulting company based in Beverly, Mass. Using a research-based rubric for district quality, SchoolWorks leads a site visit team of researchers and practitioners through the collection and analysis of interviews, documents and observations of Broad Prize finalist district practices. For more information, please visit www.schoolworks.com.

We will continue to share the best practices of previous Broad Prize winners and finalists in future issues of Eye on the Prize. Please let us know what you think about The Broad Prize. Send your comments to broadprize@broadfoundation.org.

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