2009 Broad Prize for Urban Education Awarded to Aldine Independent School District; Texas District Wins $1 Million, Four Finalists Each Win $250,000

“Aldine deserves to celebrate today,” said Eli Broad, founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which sponsors The Broad Prize. “Aldine has demonstrated that when an entire community and district work together with a singular focus on educating every child, they can succeed, even against the odds of poverty. Their success holds valuable lessons for other urban districts trying to do the same.”

Among the reasons Aldine stood out this year among large urban school districts:

• Outperformed other similar Texas districts. In 2008, Aldine outperformed other districts in Texas that serve students with similar family incomes in reading and math at all grade levels (elementary, middle and high school), according to The Broad Prize methodology.

• Demonstrated better performance by racial, ethnic and income subgroups. In 2008,
Aldine’s Hispanic and low-income students achieved higher average proficiency rates than their state counterparts in reading and math at all school levels. In addition, Aldine’s African-American students achieved higher average proficiency rates than their state counterparts in math at all school levels and in middle and high school reading.

• Closed achievement gaps. Despite the relatively small size of achievement gaps between its low- and non-low-income students, Aldine still made progress between 2005 and 2008 in closing income gaps over time in reading at all school levels and in elementary and middle school math. Aldine also narrowed the gaps between its African-American students and the state average for white students between 2005 and 2008. For example, during this time, the gap between these two groups narrowed by 14 percentage points in middle school math.

• Broke the predictive power of poverty. Family income level is typically a strong predictor of school performance nationally. However, Broad Prize data analysis shows that school-level poverty does not appear to be statistically related to student achievement in Aldine at any grade level in reading or math. High student achievement is just as likely in a low-income Aldine school as it is in a non-low-income school.