Gwinnett schools get $250,000 as Broad Prize finalist

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By Nancy Badertscher and D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gwinnett County Public Schools was awarded $250,000 early Wednesday as a finalist for what’s considered the Nobel Prize of public education.

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Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com Gwinnett school support staff applaud as they learn the district has won a $250,000 Broad Prize.

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The school system was in contention for the top prize of $1 million in scholarship money but lost to four-time finalist Aldine Independent School District, near Houston.

Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com The school system was in contention for the top prize of $1 million in scholarship money but lost to four-time finalist Aldine Independent School District, near Houston.

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The school system was in contention for the top prize of $1 million in scholarship money but lost to four-time finalist Aldine Independent School District, near Houston.

Gwinnett Superintendent of Schools Alvin Wilbanks was in Washington, D.C., when U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Dunn announced the winner and finalists for the 2009 Broad (pronounced “Brode”) Prize for Urban Education.

“I certainly feel good,” Wilbanks said in a telephone interview. “All of these districts are great districts.”

The $250,000, Wilbanks said, will go to “some deserving students who can use the money” for college.”

Wilbanks said much of the credit goes to teachers and staff whose hard work ensures “this is no one-shot deal.”

Gwinnett -- the state’s largest system with 160,036 students -- was one of five finalists that will collectely claim $2 million in college scholarship money.

The prize is given annually to the urban district that’s shown the greatest overall improvement in student achievement and reduced its income and ethnic achievement gaps.

Districts do not apply for the award. The Broad Foundation does an extensive analysis of test scores and other data from the nation’s 100 largest school systems.

Gwinnett County emerged as one of the finalists, in part because of strides that the majority minority district made in reducing the achievement gap between white and minority students. Researchers with Broad pointed out that, between 2006 and 2008, the achievement gap between Gwinnett’s Hispanic students and their white peers narrowed by 9 percentage points in elementary school reading.

This is the first year that the Gwinnett system was named a finalist for the award and only the second time that a Georgia school system was a serious contender. Atlanta Public Schools was a finalist in 2002 and received $125,000 in scholarship money.

In Gwinnett County, community leaders watched the announcement on a big-screen TV at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce in Duluth.

School administrators watched at the school district’s Suwanee headquarters. The awards ceremony also was broadcast on the school system’s cable television channel.

Dr. Gale Hey, an area superintendent with Gwinnett Public Schools, called the finalist award and $250,000 “affirmation of the good work being done at the local schools.”

Parent Sonya Jones, who attended one of the parties to watch the announcement of the winner, said this “proves Gwinnett County really believes in student achievement.”

Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, who created the award, said:

“Gwinnett County students, teachers, parents, administrators and the entire community deserve to celebrate today.

“To be among the top five urban school districts in the nation is no easy feat -- it’s the result of smart student-focused strategies and hard work on the part of an entire community.”

The other three finalists were Broward County Public Schools in southern Florida; the Long Beach Unified School District in California; and the Socorro Independent School District in west Texas.