Gwinnett County schools up for $1M national prize

Gwinnett County Public Schools soon may join the elite ranks of school systems in New York City and Boston as one of the top urban school districts in the country.


The 160,000-student district — the largest in Georgia — is one of five finalists for the Broad (pronounced "Brode") Prize for Urban Education, which honors school systems that have showed the most improvement in student achievement, particularly for minorities and low-income students. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will announce the winner Wednesday at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.


The prize includes $1 million in scholarships for students graduating from the winning district in 2010 and $250,000 for scholarships for the other systems.


For the county just north of Atlanta, it also means recognition beyond Georgia, where Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks is known for narrowing the achievement gap between the white and minority students in his district. Black and Hispanic students make up about half the student population.


"I think we have really moved away from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. While that may sound simple, it's an extremely complex concept," Wilbanks said in a telephone interview. "When I go to visit a school and a classroom, I don't observe the teacher. I watch the students. Are they engaged? Are they working on assignments? Are they working with each other?"


A team that visited Gwinnett County schools from the Broad Foundation noted the district's tough curriculum that requires more of students than what the state does. The district also has open classrooms where administrators can float in and out, observing how teachers are doing and what students are learning.


About 70 percent of principals' evaluations are based on student performance on tests, which means they are held directly responsible for how much students learn.


"They're doing things that are not really happening around the country," said Erica Lepping, spokeswoman for the Broad Foundation.


About 72 percent of black students in Gwinnett graduate from high school, and 61 percent of Hispanic students get a diploma. That compares with 59 percent of black students nationally, and is on par with the national average for Hispanic students.


The district has steadily increased the rate of black students taking Advanced Placement courses since 2005, hitting 12 percent last year with 44 percent scoring enough to get college credit. That's compared with the national average of 8 percent of black students taking an AP course and only 4 percent passing the test.


For Hispanic students in Gwinnett, the gap between them and their white peers in elementary school reading has narrowed by 9 percentage points since 2006.


For the prize, the other finalists are: Aldine Independent School District in Houston; Broward County Public Schools in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Long Beach Unified School District in California; and Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas.


The Los Angeles, Calif.-based Broad Foundation has given out the award since 2002 to honor achievement among the nation's 100 largest urban school districts. Previous winners include the New York City Department of Education, Boston Public Schools and Houston Independent School District.

Original article found at http://www.ajc.com/AJC-sharing_/gwinnett-county-schools-up-137097.html