On Tuesday, Georgia's largest public school district, Gwinnett County Public Schools, won the prestigious Broad Prize, the competition for the nation’s best urban school district.
GCPS Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks, founder of Gwinnett Technical College, considers the teachers, students and principals in the district as the "real heroes" of GCPS and counts them as the key to GCPS success in the district winning the award.
GCPS has made great efforts in its strive for educational excellence. The Broad Foundation said GCPS had narrowed some reading and math achievement gaps and had achieved higher participation rates for African-American and Latino students on SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement exams between 2006 and 2009:
•The average SAT score of 1526 in 2009 topped state and
national averages.
•Between 2006 and 2009 SAT participation for African
Americans rose by 9 percentage points.
•Twelve Gwinnett high schools were named Advanced
Placement (AP) Honor Schools for performance on exams
that prepare students for the rigors of college.
GCPS students also have outperformed their counterparts statewide on reading and math tests when accounting for family income levels. A higher percentage of GCPS' African-American students, Latino and low-income students have scored at the advanced level on state tests than similar students in other districts, according to the foundation.
Each year, a jury of prominent community leaders selects the Broad winner among the list of five finalists, originally winnowed from the largest 100 urban school districts in the country, based upon their success in improving student achievement and narrowing the achievement gaps of poor and minority students. The other finalists were Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools of North Carolina; Montgomery County Public Schools of Maryland; Socorro Independent School District and Ysleta Independent School District, both of Texas.
“We (GSBA) are so pleased that the Gwinnett County school board has been recognized for their outstanding leadership,’ said Jeannie M. (Sis) Henry, executive director of the Georgia School Boards Association, ‘What a compliment for the relationship that exists between the board and superintendent.”