Boston Public Schools Chosen as a Finalist for National Education Award

Los Angeles, CA -- The Broad Foundation announced today the selection of the Boston Public Schools as one of five finalists for The Broad Prize for Urban Education.

The determination of finalists was made by a review board comprised of prominent education leaders from across the country. A first of its kind, The Broad Prize for Urban Education will annually honor educational innovation and improvement through a cash award of $500,000.

Eli Broad, Founder of The Broad Foundation, said, "Ensuring achievement in America's urban public schools is the most important civil rights issue of the new century. Boston's remarkable improvements in increasing student achievement are a model for the nation. The future looks better and brighter for Boston's public school children."

The Prize will be awarded to the urban school district that has made the greatest overall improvement in student achievement while at the same time reducing the achievement gap across ethnic lines and between high and low income students. The cash award will fund scholarships for students in the winning school district to attend college or other post-secondary training.

The Broad Prize for Urban Education is designed to:

• Regain the American public's confidence in public schools by spotlighting a district that is making significant gains in student achievement.



• Create an incentive to dramatically increase student achievement in our nation's largest urban school districts.



• Reward public school systems that are successfully using creative, results-oriented approaches and techniques to better educate children.

In addition to the cash award, the winner of The Broad Prize for Urban Education will be showcased nationwide over the following year. The winning school district's best instruction and management practices will be spotlighted so that other urban school systems can learn about and be inspired by their success.

The process to select the winner of The Broad Prize for Urban Education involves four steps:

1. Approximately 100 US urban school districts were identified as eligible candidates.



2. A board of reviewers, comprised of 18 education leaders from across the country -- with the help of the National Center for Educational Accountability -- used quantitative and qualitative performance indicators to narrow the list of candidates to a small group of finalists. The review board is made up of recognized experts in education from across the country. They analyzed extensive quantitative data on student performance and used their collective knowledge and experience to determine the finalists.



3. A team of researchers and practitioners will conduct site visits to each finalist district in May to gather additional quantitative and qualitative data and meet with the district's school board, superintendent and union leaders.



4. A selection jury will meet this summer to review the information collected on the site visits and information considered by the review board to select one district as the winner of the inaugural Broad Prize for Urban Education. The selection jury is comprised of leaders in business, government and philanthropy. The jury includes: Henry Cisneros, Chairman and CEO of American City Vista; Phil Condit, Chairman and CEO of The Boeing Company; Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund; John Engler, Governor of Michigan; Richard D. Parsons, CEO-designate, AOL Time Warner; Paul Patton, Governor of Kentucky; Hugh Price, President and CEO of the National Urban League; Richard Riley, Former US Secretary of Education and Andrew L. Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union.

Secretary of Education Rod Paige, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Tim Hutchinson, Senator Paul Sarbanes and The Broad Foundation's Founder, Eli Broad, announced the creation of this prize on March 15, 2002 at the United States Capitol.

Boston Public Schools will be competing for the prize with the following finalists: Atlanta Public Schools, Garden Grove Unified School District, Houston Independent School District and Long Beach Unified School District.

The Broad Foundation is a Los Angeles-based entrepreneurial grant-making organization, established in 1999 by Eli and Edythe Broad. The Foundation was started with an initial investment of $100 million that was recently increased by the Broad family to $400 million. The Foundation's mission is to dramatically improve K-12 urban public education through better governance, management and labor relations.