Six Prominent National Leaders Join Jury that Selects Broad Prize Winner, Nation's Most Improved Urban School District

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six prominent national leaders will join the jury that decides which large urban school district will win the annual Broad Prize for Urban Education, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced today.

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The Broad (rhymes with "road") Prize for Urban Education honors the large urban school districts that demonstrate the highest student achievement and strongest improvement while narrowing achievement gaps between income and ethnic groups.  The winning school district receives $550,000 in college scholarships for graduating high school seniors, and each of three finalist school districts receive $150,000 in college scholarships, totaling $1 million in awards.  Last year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina won The Broad Prize for improving academic achievement of students of all backgrounds, empowering teachers to use data to tailor instruction toward individual student needs and turning around low-performing schools.

The six new members of the jury—which consists of bipartisan national leaders from government, education, labor, public service, media and business—include:

• The Honorable Christopher Dodd, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., and former U.S. senator from Connecticut
• Donald Graham, chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Company
• Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund
• The Honorable Edward G. Rendell, former governor of Pennsylvania
• The Honorable Condoleezza Rice, Thomas and Barbara Stephenson senior fellow at The Hoover Institution of Stanford University and former U.S. secretary of state
• Mortimer Zuckerman, chairman and editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News

"We are honored to have such accomplished leaders joining our distinguished jury," said Eli Broad, founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which awards The Broad Prize. "Their collective experience will add immeasurable value to the difficult task of determining which urban American school district has made the greatest progress in helping students of all backgrounds improve academically."

Each summer, The Broad Prize jury chooses the winning school district from a pool of four finalists after reviewing publicly available student performance data on each finalist as well as site visit reports on the policies and practices implemented by the four finalists in an effort to raise student achievement. 

These new jurors join nine others who have served on The Broad Prize selection jury in recent years:

• The Honorable Henry Cisneros, executive chairman of CityView America and former U.S. secretary of housing and urban development
• Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• The Honorable James B. Hunt, Jr., chairman of the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy and former governor of North Carolina
• Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• The Honorable Roderick Paige, former U.S. secretary of education
• The Honorable Richard Riley, partner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP and former U.S. secretary of education
• The Honorable Donna E. Shalala, president of the University of Miami and former U.S. secretary of health and human services
• The Honorable Margaret Spellings, president and CEO of Margaret Spellings & Company and former U.S. secretary of education
• Andrew Stern, senior fellow at the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy at Columbia University, and president emeritus of Service Employees International Union

Seventy-five school districts that serve significant percentages of low-income and minority students are automatically eligible and considered each year for the $1 million Broad Prize.  Districts cannot apply for, or be nominated for, this award.  Four finalists are selected each year by a review board of national education researchers, policy leaders, K-12 practitioners, university executives, national education associations, think-tanks and foundations. The four finalists for the 2012 Broad Prize will be announced in April.

Broad Prize scholarships are awarded to students in the winning and finalist districts who have significant financial need and demonstrate a record of academic improvement during their high school career. Scholarship recipients who enroll in four-year colleges receive up to $20,000 paid out over four years ($5,000 per year). Broad Prize scholars who enroll in two-year colleges receive up to $5,000 scholarships paid out over two years ($2,500 per year).

For more information on The Broad Prize, please visit:  www.broadprize.org. 

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is a national philanthropy established by entrepreneur Eli Broad that invests in the bold and innovative transformation of K-12 urban public education in America so that students of all backgrounds are academically prepared for college, careers and life.  The Broad Foundation's Internet address is www.broadeducation.org.   

SOURCE The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation