October 2, 2002

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today joined Broad Foundation founder Eli Broad to announce that Houston Independent School District is America's top performing school district and the winner of the inaugural Broad Prize for Urban Education.

Paige and Broad were joined at the Capitol Hill announcement by several members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

In its first year, the Broad Prize for Urban Education is an annual $1 million award that was created by The Broad Foundation to honor urban school districts that are making the greatest overall improvement in student achievement while at the same time closing achievement gaps across ethnic groups and between high and low income students.

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.

The $1 million cash award will fund scholarships for students in the winning school districts to attend college or other post-secondary training. The winning district - Houston - will receive $500,000 in scholarships. The four finalists will each receive $125,000 in scholarships. The finalists are: Atlanta Public Schools, Boston Public Schools, Garden Grove Unified School District and Long Beach Unified School District.

More information about the award is available at http://www.broadprize.org/past.shtml.

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