Dive Brief:
- Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia and Orange County Public Schools in Florida will split $1 million as the 2014 recipients of the Broad Prize for Urban Education.
- The prize, which normally only goes to one district, is awarded annually to large urban districts that have made strides in closing the achievement gap with rigorous academics.
- The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation sponsors the competition and asks that the awarded money be used to fund college scholarships for high school seniors.
Dive Insight:
"We were impressed with Gwinnett County’s steady, sustainable gains and with Orange County’s urgency and commitment to improve student achievement quickly," former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a member of the selection team, said in a statement. "In the end, we decided that both finalists deserved to win the 2014 Broad Prize."
As the Broad Foundation wants to see the funds affect the most people, size of school and amount of diversity play a large role in deciding the winning schools. School achievement, of course, is equally as important.
Interestingly, the two winning districts were the only finalists this year. Typically, the Broad Prize has as many as five finalists that judges wheedle down to one winner. This year, however, the jury was unimpressed with the overall achievement levels of those entering the competition. It would be fascinating to find out what the achievement levels are based on. If it's state tests, the decreased performance could be due to new tests aligned to the Common Core.