Welcome to the first 2007 edition of Eye on the Prize: The Road to Broad, brought to you by The Broad Foundation.

This newsletter is published quarterly, and in it we'll share updates on The Broad Prize selection process and best practices of winning and finalist districts.

In this edition of Eye on the Prize: The Road to Broad:

What's Coming Up This Year
Boston's Million-Dollar Celebration
District Spotlight: Dallas Paves Its Own "Road to Broad"
Welcome Our New Partner: MPR Associates

What's Coming Up This Year

From a pool of 100 urban school systems, five finalists are selected to share $1 million. And from those five, one winner is chosen.

Sounds simple, but the road leading to The Broad Prize ceremony in September is, in fact, a year-long process that draws on the expertise of 16 education leaders, 14 nationally prominent individuals from business and public service, and a team of dozens of data analysts and coordinators. The selection of the finalists and winner is a rigorous process that requires the analysis of thousands of pages of data, hundreds of hours of school site visits and lively, occasionally contentious, discussion and debate.

To start, school districts cannot apply for The Broad Prize. The 100 eligible districts are determined by The Broad Foundation, based on size, minority and low-income enrollment and urban designation by the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau.

And what does it take to win? There is no formula used to determine the finalists and winner, but there is a comprehensive review of a district's academic results. The Broad Prize data analysis covers performance results on mandated state tests in reading and math for each district's elementary, middle and high schools. A regression analysis is conducted to compare those results with the performance of other districts in the state that have similar low-income student populations. Additional data reviewed includes achievement gap closures, graduation rates, SAT and ACT scores and participation rates, and Advanced Placement exam passing and participation rates. All of the data for The Broad Prize is reviewed for all students in each district, as well as for low-income, African American, Asian and Hispanic subgroups.

And the 2007 Broad Prize finalists are...

We can't tell you yet, but watch your inbox this April for the announcement of the five finalist districts.

Best Practices in the News

Want to read more about the best practices of previous Broad Prize finalist and winning districts? Browse through recently published articles that discuss how to improve performance and narrow achievement gaps. With a spotlight on topics ranging from the No Child Left Behind Act to the use of data in schools, we hope you'll find these articles useful and stimulating.

Click here to learn more.

Quotables

"...being recognized as a Broad Prize finalist and later being selected as the Prize winner provided a validation of our efforts that was unparalleled. The work we do in our classrooms is as difficult as it is critical and to have our teachers publicly recognized on a national level gave credibility to changes they struggled with and a great sense of pride in the ensuing results. This recognition and outside validation of our work has been an enormous lever for continued improvement."
--Laura Schwalm
Superintendent
Garden Grove Unified School District
Winner, 2004 Broad Prize in Urban Education

Below is a summary of the 2007 Broad Prize review and selection process.

December 2006
The 100 districts eligible for the 2007 Broad Prize are notified of their status. Data collection begins. If necessary, eligible districts receive inquiries from Broad Prize partner, MPR Associates.

March-April 2007
The Broad Prize Review Board, a team of 16 education experts, gathers to review performance indicators, demographic statistics and other information to determine the five Broad Prize finalist districts.

April-May 2007
A team of experienced researchers and education practitioners visits the five finalist districts to collect additional quantitative and qualitative data and to observe best practices in action.

Summer 2007
The Broad Prize Jury, a group of 14 nationally prominent individuals, meets to determine the winner of the 2007 Broad Prize for Urban Education.

September 18, 2007
The winner of the 2007 Broad Prize for Urban Education is announced at a press conference and celebratory luncheon at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Winter 2007
District Report Cards—summaries of the analysis conducted on each Broad Prize-eligible district—are sent to district officials.

Boston's Million-Dollar Celebration

"We know we are making progress. And now the nation does."
—Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino

It was a celebration five years in the making.

After collecting $125,000 each year since 2002, Boston Public Schools finally collected the top prize in 2006, bringing its five-year Broad Prize winnings to $1 million in college scholarships for high school seniors. The city and the district had a reason to celebrate this winter, and they did it in style.

With a Broad Prize sculpture carved in ice and musical entertainment by students in Thomas J. Kenny Elementary School marching band, more than 400 parents, students, principals, administrators and community leaders held a "Winter Wonderland" celebration, paid for by The Broad Foundation, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on Dec. 15.

"We know we are making progress. And now the nation does," said Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "The Broad Foundation has validated what we know to be true: that the Boston Public Schools system is exceptional."

And exceptional it is. Each school year from 2002 through 2005, using The Broad Prize methodology, this 58,000-student district has consistently outperformed other Massachusetts districts with similar low-income populations in six out of six areas — elementary, middle and high school reading and math.

But that's not all. The district has also demonstrated multiple other instructional and operational improvements.

For example, Boston has significantly improved its human resources practices. With streamlined electronic hiring processes (previously, all application and hiring processes were paper-based), an earlier teacher hiring timeline and regular customer service surveys, the district has been able to hire better principals and teachers and provide improved HR services to schools and employees.

The district also monitors the entire system through the Whole School Improvement Plan and the web-based MyBPS electronic data system. A new system to monitor dropouts, attendance and suspension is now being implemented.

For more information on Boston's road to the Broad Prize, please visit www.boston.k12.ma.us.

District Spotlight: Dallas Paves Its Own Road to Broad

Like so many other large urban school systems, Dallas Independent School District (DISD) found itself lagging behind other districts in the state. Troubled by the district's student achievement statistics, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, with the support of DISD board of trustees, decided to do something about it.

In November 2005, Hinojosa raised the bar for high academic achievement. With a goal of transforming DISD so that all of its students graduate from high school ready for college and the workforce, the district has set winning The Broad Prize by 2010 as the marker of success.

"Becoming the premier urban district in the nation by 2010 will require bold leadership and systemic redesign of our work and realignment of our resources," says Hinojosa.

To that end, Hinojosa and the DISD Board of Trustees developed Dallas Achieves!, a comprehensive initiative that engages the school district and the entire Dallas community in the development of a transformation road map. The initiative includes the following comprehensive agenda around which to coordinate efforts:

Adopt annual and five-year performance targets for all students and student groups in academic achievement, graduation and college readiness. Implement district and campus improvement plans.
Compare the district in five areas of student achievement to five other urban school districts in Texas and to student performance statewide.
Strategically align with:
- Best practices based on a curriculum and instruction audit by the National Center for Educational Accountability.
- More rigorous learning expectations for students.
- Clearer curriculum guidelines for teachers.
- Content-based professional development for all teachers and parents.
- Additional expectations for monitoring and supporting student learning.
- Reallocated resources based on recommendations of the Dallas Achieves! Commission to meet learning expectations for students.

Stay tuned for Dallas' progress on its own road to Broad. For more information on Dallas Achieves!, please visit www.roadtobroad.com.

If your district has set a similar goal, please let us know. We'd love to feature what your district is doing to dramatically improve student achievement and close achievement gaps.

Welcome to Our New Partners

As The Broad Prize enters its sixth year, we are pleased to announce a collaboration with MPR Associates, our new partner for The Broad Prize data collection and analysis. With the increase in the availability of education data for urban school districts, The Broad Prize review and selection process continues to evolve and improve to leverage this new information. Our collaboration with MPR Associates is the cornerstone of that effort.

One of the nation's leading education consulting firms, MPR Associates is committed to strengthening elementary, secondary and postsecondary education and expanding opportunities for youth and adults. With offices in Berkeley, Calif. and Washington D.C. and a staff of nearly 75, MPR Associates will manage the rigorous Broad Prize selection process.

For more information on MPR Associates, please visit www.mprinc.com.