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

• Demonstrated strong district-wide policies and practices. The district’s comprehensive curricular and instructional system sets clear, rigorous expectations for teachers and principals and provides easy access to instructional resources and student performance information. In addition, Aldine regularly monitors progress toward goals, ensures that staff and resources are focused on district-wide priorities, gives principals budget autonomy yet holds them accountable and aggressively recruits high-quality teachers.

Each year, 100 of the largest urban school districts nationwide are automatically eligible for The Broad Prize. Districts cannot apply for or be nominated for this award.
For a full electronic press kit, including additional student outcomes, policies and practices that made Aldine stand out among large urban American districts, as well as details on all the finalists, please visit www.broadprize.org.

This marks the third time in just eight years since The Broad Prize was started in 2002 that a Texas district has taken home the top honor. The Houston Independent School District won The Broad Prize in 2002, and the Brownsville Independent School District took home the award last year.

Previous winners also include the New York City Department of Education (2007), Boston Public Schools (2006), Norfolk Public Schools, Va. (2005), the Garden Grove Unified School District, Calif. (2004) and the Long Beach Unified School District, Calif. (2003).

The selection jury that chose this year’s winner included:

• Henry Cisneros, chairman and CEO of CityView America, former president of Univision and former U.S. secretary of housing and urban development

• James B. Hunt, Jr., chairman of the board of the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy and former governor of North Carolina

• Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

• Roderick Paige, chairman and founder of Chartwell Education Group and former U.S. secretary of education