Welcome to the first edition of Eye on the
Prize: The Road to Broad, brought to you by The Broad Foundation and the National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA).

• Eye on the Prize: The Road to Broad
• Systemic Education Reform: The Real Silver Bullet
• Norfolk Celebrates Victory

Eye on the Prize: The Road to Broad

Eye on the Prize is a bi-monthly newsletter designed to keep you informed about the $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education, the nation’s largest award in public education, as well as to share with you the best practices of previous Broad Prize winners. 

Throughout the school year, we will bring you updates on The Broad Prize selection process, as well as stories about successful strategies and practices used by winning and finalist districts to raise overall student achievement and narrow achievement gaps. In the coming months, look for articles covering topics ranging from improving and supporting instruction to using data to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of teaching techniques. You’ll discover how other districts have successfully implemented these strategies, and we’ll provide contact information so you can communicate directly with leaders in these districts to learn more.  

In this edition of Eye on the Prize, you’ll read about how a recently developed research model helps districts and schools collect, assess and communicate information about student achievement, and also about how Norfolk Public Schools overcame obstacles related to high student mobility and achievement gaps to become the winner of he 2005 Broad Prize.

We hope that you will find these articles informative and practical, that they will spark a dialogue among districts nationwide and that they will give you ideas and encouragement that academic success for all children is possible.   

The $1 million Broad (pronounced "brode") Prize is an annual award that honors the country's urban school districts that are making the greatest improvements in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among ethnic groups and between high- and low-income students. The money goes directly to graduating high school seniors for college scholarships. Each spring, five districts are named as finalists. The winning district receives $500,000 in scholarships, and each finalist district receives $125,000.

To learn more about The Broad Foundation, please visit www.broadfoundation.org; and for more information about the National Center for Educational Accountability, please visit www.nc4ea.org.

Systemic Education Reform: The Real Silver Bullet

Small class size. Effective leadership. Highly qualified teachers. Small learning communities. Increased parental involvement.

Over the years, each has been offered as a panacea for the problems in public education. But as any teacher, principal, administrator or researcher will tell you, there is no single answer. If that were the case, every child would be literate, all would perform at grade-level in all subjects and all would graduate.

So in the absence of a single silver bullet, how does a school district know what to do and where to start to impact student achievement beyond a handful of students, classrooms or even schools? How does a district become “high-performing”?

The National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA) has built a tool for schools and districts to collect information on their entire educational system, assess their instructional practices and communicate internally and externally what they are doing to improve student achievement. Based on a study of more than 450 higher-performing and average-performing schools and systems, NCEA’s "Best Practice Framework" consists of five organizing themes describing the primary instructional activities and major content areas that differentiate high-performing schools from their comparable average-performing counterparts. Additionally, this integrated model illustrates that no one single strategy or practice will produce the change needed for systemic improvement.

The five themes are:

1. Curriculum and Academic Goals
2. Staff Selection and Capacity Building
3. Instructional Programs, Practices and Arrangements
4. Monitoring, Analysis and Use of Data
5. Recognition, Intervention and Adjustments

Each theme is then divided into district, school and classroom levels to articulate where the work must occur. For example, if curriculum development is only the responsibility of teachers, they lose valuable time away from instruction, and the system lacks consistency across classrooms. Yet districts need to involve teachers in curriculum development, as their knowledge and support of curriculum is paramount. The Best Practice Framework does not tell districts and schools which specific programs or instructional strategies to use. Rather, The Framework illustrates how districts and schools select, monitor and evaluate programs.

“The Framework helps you make decisions that are aligned and helps you assess where you are relative to your goals, which enables you to identify gaps,” said Laura Schwalm, superintendent of the Garden Grove Unified School District, the 2004 winner of The Broad Prize. “It structures your thinking, as well as provides a barometer for your goals. The work can be overwhelming. I feel good knowing there is a blueprint to understand where to start and at what level the work needs to focus. It’s something that can be driven from the district to the classroom, because if we can’t do a good job at the district level, we can’t expect it at the classroom level.”  

The Framework is used as a tool in determining the finalists and winner of the Broad Prize for Urban Education and as a platform for sharing the successes of The Broad Prize districts. Please visit www.nc4ea.org for more information about the Best Practice Framework, to view newly released evidence of success from winning districts, or to sign-up to the take the Best Practice audits free for your entire school or district.

Norfolk Celebrates Victory

After collecting $250,000 as a finalist for two years in a row, Virginia’s Norfolk Public Schools took home the top prize of $500,000 as the winner of the 2005 Broad Prize for Urban Education. 

Announced at the Library of Congress by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and philanthropist Eli Broad in September 2005, Norfolk Public Schools was rewarded for steadily improving student achievement over the past four years while narrowing the achievement gaps among student groups.

Despite the urban challenges of a Navy town’s transient community, Norfolk Public Schools, a district with approximately 69 percent African-American students and 58 percent eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, has demonstrated steady improvement in elementary, middle and high school math and reading. Both elementary school reading and math proficiency improved 14 percent in the last four years, and middle school math proficiency improved 23 percent.  Ethnic achievement gaps for Hispanic students dropped 11 percent in elementary reading, and achievement gaps in middle school math for African-American students closed by 10 percent.   

So how are they doing it? 

“All Means All” 
The district considers the Virginia Standards of Learning, which require that 70 percent of students be proficient in a subject area, the minimum goal. In 2001, then-superintendent John Simpson and the school board developed the mantra, “All means all,” which signals Norfolk’s commitment to strive for high levels of achievement for every student. Every teacher, administrator and many parents and community members know the mantra and commitment of the district to ensure a quality education for every child.

Powerful Literacy
Norfolk schools have embraced the concept of “Powerful Literacy,” a 14-characteristic skill set that ensures that all students not only know how to read, write and compute, but also how to think critically, analyze and solve problems. In the late 1990s, the district had 22 different reading programs. Now there’s a single standardized curriculum that is aligned with the state’s educational standards. And the district sets the bar much higher—while the state requires students to be proficient in reading by third grade, Norfolk believes its students should read proficiently by the end of first grade.  Toward this end, the district conducts quarterly assessments in kindergarten, first and second grades in reading fluency, phonics, comprehension and vocabulary. The result: a gain of 20 percentage points from first to second grade.  

Frequent Monitoring
With up to 40 percent of students transferring during the school year because of family Navy assignments, the district has instituted a computerized database to track student progress. Additionally, a consistent curriculum—ensuring, for example, that every third grade class in every elementary school is teaching multiplication tables at the same time—helps transfer students stay on course.  

Time and Talent
The district has made a commitment to support schools and classrooms by providing frequent classroom walk-throughs and on-site help by instructional specialists who are required to spend 70 percent of their time working side-by-side with teachers and principals. The district has also cultivated a strong parent and community network, encouraging parent involvement and offering parenting workshops that are supported by local businesses.

It All Comes Down to Data
Norfolk assesses its needs in all programs, professional development and policies by first evaluating data. The district insists on using data to drive its decisions and practices. Teachers receive immediate feedback on quarterly and monthly benchmark tests and on common assessments that are scanned electronically, which allows them to make real-time adjustments to instruction.

Norfolk turned the school district’s Broad Prize win into a citywide celebration, with local businesses and the city underwriting a black-tie dinner and an additional recognition event for teachers. But The Broad Prize accolade was an opportunity to tout the city’s strong education system at home and beyond. 

“These visionary businesses understand one simple fact: Quality public education is vital to their success.  Without quality graduates, they lack a quality workforce,” School Board President Theresa Whibley wrote in an editorial in the local newspaper. “We must stop viewing the students in Norfolk’s classrooms as other people’s kids. Each of us is responsible for the success of every child. Today’s students will be tomorrow’s taxpayers and civic leaders. As a result, it’s critically important that every student gets the type of education we would want for our own child. And we must be prepared to be active participants in achieving that goal. That means lobbying our city and state leaders for necessary funding, volunteering in schools, spreading the good news about public education’s successes and advocating for all children.”

For more information on Norfolk’s successes, please visit www.nps.k12.va.us, or to speak directly with the district, please contact Vince Rhodes, Norfolk's communications manager, at 757-628-3830.

To contact The Broad Foundation, please phone 310-954-5050.