BREAKING NEWS: City wins Broad Prize
In just a few minutes the Broad Foundation will announce that New York City is this year's winner of the prestigious Broad Prize, given annually to an urban school district that has improved the test scores of its poor and minority students.
We knew this was coming, both because the word has been on the street for the last few days and because when philanthropist Eli Broad created the prize in 2003 he basically told Joel Klein the prize was Klein's to win. (Since then, the New York Sun notes, Broad has given Klein and Bloomberg non-prize cash to support their school reforms.)
The prize comes with $500,000 for scholarships, but the bigger reward is bragging rights. New York City has been a finalist each of the last three years, and winning now gives Klein and Bloomberg a big thumbs-up for their reform efforts. The folks over at NYC Public School Parents sent a letter to philanthropist Eli Broad urging him not to give the prize to New York because the DOE's reforms have systematically excluded parent input.
Update: The press release is up at the Broad Foundation's website. Eli Broad: "If it can be done in New York City, it can be done anywhere. The strong leadership by the mayor, the chancellor and a progressive teachers union has allowed a school system the size of New York City to dramatically improve student achievement in a relatively short period of time. Other cities can look to New York as a model of successful urban school district reform."
1 comment:
As one of the participants in the Broad Foundation focus groups, I sent this statement to the Press today...
http://davidmquintana.blogspot.com/2007/09/parent-participant-view-on-broad.html
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Statement:
As one of the four (4) parent participants in a focus group held at Tweed for researchers from the Broad Foundation, I am disappointed in the fact that NYC received the Broad Foundation prize today.
This group of parents, handpicked by Martine Guerrier of the Department of Education (DOE), expressed uniform disappointment with the various changes put into place by DOE, the lack of transparency and accountability, and the lack of consideration given the views of parents about what their children really need to succeed.
Clearly the Broad Foundation did not take parents views into consideration when awarding this prize to NYC today.
I feel that the DOE is totally dismissive of parents views and makes short shrift of our concerns for our children (i.e. - class size reduction, cell phone ban, school bus fiasco, numerous reorganizations of the DOE, et al)
Thank you.
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David M. Quintana
District 27 Presidents Council - Recording Secretary; District 27 Representative to Chancelors Parents Advisory Council, Queens Community Board 10 - Education Committee and Queens Borough President's Parents Advisory Council Member
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