Gwinnett wins prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education: A validation of its strong superintendent
Congratulations to the teachers, students and administrators of Gwinnett schools. In a ceremony in New York, Gwinnett was just declared the nation’s top urban school system by the Broad Foundation, earning the district a million dollars in student scholarships and its controversial superintendent validation of his strong leadership style.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the award in front of an audience that included a large Gwinnett contingent.
In New York today, J. Alvin Wilbanks accepted the 2010 Broad Prize on behalf of Gwinnett schools from U.S. Ed Secetary Arne Duncan.
The Broad Prize for Urban Education honors the urban system that has the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing the achievement gap. It is the largest education prize in the country.
“This is a great trip to New York,” said Dr. Alvin Wilbanks, Gwinnett superintendent, thanking his board of education and his central staff. “Let me present to you the real heroes – the two people who make a real difference in the success of students, the teachers and principals. It is not us in the district office — you are the ones who carry out what we are supposed to do. We learned a long time ago that our mission is teaching and learning and that has caused a sea change in what we do.”
While I know that Wilbanks has his critics, I have to share a conversation I had last week with a former DOE official. He said that he dealt with the leadership teams of all the districts, and he understood why DeKalb and Atlanta had so many more problems that Gwinnett.
He said Wilbanks assembled a leadership team that was sharp, responsive and together, while the other two systems’ teams were disorganized and non-responsive.
When I need photos of top students or a statement, Gwinnett is the first to respond. From an outside point of view, Gwinnett is well run, efficient and responsive.
So, while Wilbanks may be demanding and, according to his critics, imperious, I have to offer that he is also effective in what matters most: Educating children.
So thought a jury that included former U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige, former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt and former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros.
An 18-member review board selected the five finalists. Other finalists are Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, N.C., Montgomery County Public Schools, Md., Socorro Independent School District, El Paso, Texas, and Ysleta Independent School District, El Paso, Texas.
Here are some of the statements in support of Gwinnett today:
Gov Perdue: “This national recognition for Gwinnett County Public Schools is well deserved. The school board, Superintendent. Wilbanks and the staff and faculty in Gwinnett have made student achievement their singular focus. Gwinnett was the first Georgia system to sign an IE2 contract, and the system is one of 26 participating in the state’s Race to the Top program. Gwinnett has consistently embraced innovative education policies, and today’s announcement of the Broad Prize award is a direct result of all the hard work put in over the years to raise student performance.”
State Superintendent Brad Bryant: “Congratulations to Superintendent Wilbanks and Gwinnett County Public Schools on receiving the 2010 Broad Prize for Urban Education. This award is a testament to Gwinnett’s commitment to provide every student with an opportunity for success. Gwinnett is a shining example of how high expectations can lead to outstanding student achievement. ”
GAE President Calvine Rollins. “On behalf of the Georgia Association of Educators, we wholeheartedly congratulate Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks and the teachers and education support professionals of Gwinnett County on receiving the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education. We especially congratulate our colleagues of the Gwinnett County Association of Educators for their hard work and dedication in ensuring their students receive the great public education to which they’re entitled.”
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173 comments Add your comment
ScaryMFer
October 20th, 2010
10:37 am
Quit your complaining! What a bunch of cry-babies. The negative is what is wrong with this country. Mill creek is a great cluster. They have many school clubs and activities and it is up to YOU PARENTS to get your child involved and to go the extra mile in public school. Teachers can only do so much.
Broad Prize, for best urban schools, to Gwinnett County, Georgia « Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
October 20th, 2010
11:04 am
[...] Maureen Downey at the Atlanta Constitution-Journal writes that the Broad Prize is a “validatio… [...]
Vince
October 20th, 2010
1:23 pm
@ David,
It isn’t just the size of the school system that made Gwinnett eligible over schools in Fulton or Cobb (which are also large enough).
You see, most thinking people know that a school’s test scores alone only tell about the socioeconomics of an area. It’s when you look at schools with high test scores AND they still wrestle with demographic change, high economic needs, non-English speakers, etc…you see that some schools are doing something correct…..something amazing. THAT is what the Broad group recognized in Gwinnett County.
I have had three children graduate from Gwinnett schools. All have said that college was easier than the rigor they faced in their local high school. I couldn’t have asked for better preparation.
Old Time Educator
October 20th, 2010
2:06 pm
No, it was addressing this poster: (from page one)
Education Insider
October 19th, 2010
1:52 pm
David Sims
October 20th, 2010
6:09 pm
@Sherri. The real world wasn’t always diverse. Racial mixing is the result of fossil fuels used in mass transportation, in mass propaganda, and to empower the governmental coercion necessary to prevent re-segregation by both voluntary and violent means. All through the ages, races hardly ever mixed as equals. In the societies in which the races mixed at all, it was the general rule that one race was the citizenry, whereas the others were the slaves.
This social experiment in racial harmony is, judging by the evidence of the past, a temporary affair, an aberration, an attempt to violate natural laws as they apply to hominids through the constant use of exosomatic energy to defray the costs and to absorb the damage. Once fossil fuels are gone, or even seriously depleted, the world will promptly pay all of the accumulated costs for violating those natural laws.
There doesn’t appear to be much wrong with “lily-white enclaves.” After all, that’s what Europe was throughout ancient times and the Middle Ages. The people who lived there brought to the world its first and only technological civilization (all others just copied what Europe pioneered), introduced heavy industry, created its highest culture, and produced a great deal of its natural philosophies, though some of them, such as universal brotherhood and racial egalitarianism, were pretty foolish. Don’t judge Europe by the sorry condition of society you see in your area.
“I am glad my sons have had the opportunity to see that…we are all the same underneath our skin.”
If your sons have had their eyes open, that’s not what they have seen. Race isn’t skin color. Skin color is merely one of the differences that race can involve. There are loads of others: physical, mental, behavioral.
Furthermore, a difference in race doesn’t always involve a difference of skin color. The Turks are not, for example, of the same race as European white people, even though their skin is just as fair. The Negritos, inhabiting the island of Panay in the Philippines, have black skin and knappy hair, as the African blacks do, but they are as genetically distant from African blacks as Europeans are.
Community Watch Dog
October 20th, 2010
6:13 pm
This is a great honor for the seniors in GCPS. They will be eligible for $1 million in college scholarships. Let’s just hope and pray that the Board of Education, Mr. Wilbanks and his cabinet don’t abuse or mismanage the funds like in the past
Nat Turner
October 20th, 2010
6:20 pm
It was great to see the leaders of Gwinnett County Public Schools in attendance at the event. Does Gwinnett County Public Schools have black educators and leaders? I noticed Dr. Tim Mullen and Mr. Jonathan Patterson both white educators were representing the county. Mr. Wilbanks, you do have some highly educated blacks that are educators and leaders that are employed in the county? Where were they? Why weren’t they invited to attend? It’s about time to change face of the Board!!
David Sims
October 20th, 2010
7:14 pm
@Vince. The problem for school systems isn’t socioeconomics; it’s race. The reason poor people exist isn’t “historical oppression.” It is, rather, the capacity and/or efficiency of their brains, which sets (low) their point of diminishing returns on time invested in acquiring intellectual skills. The law of supply and demand, which states that the more vital a job is, and the fewer people there are who can do that job well, the greater will be the salary associated with it. Our civilization being a technical one, intellectual skills are in demand.
IQ is important in determining where someone will fall on the socioeconomic curve. Different races have different distributions for intelligence. Although each race’s distribution of IQ is nearly normal (”bell curve shaped”), the averages occur at different places along the IQ axis. They have different standard deviations, too. So each of the strata in the SES spectrum contains different proportions of the races, as the result of the races having, on the average, unequal brains, hence unequal incomes.
The first thing to suspect, when a school system declares that it has closed the racial gaps in academic achievement, is fraud. The current CRCT cheating scandal in the Atlanta Public Schools is a good example.
Although it has not yet become as nationally famous, something similar has been going on in the public schools of New York City, where the exit from office of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quickly followed by the discovery that the “closure of the racial gaps” on NYC public school test scores was illusory. That’s probably a nice way of saying fraudulent.
In Florida, it appeared for a while that the public schools had appreciably narrowed the racial gap on NAEP scores between blacks and whites and had nearly closed the gap between Hispanics and whites. On close examination, it turned out that the narrowing was, once again, illusion. In this case, the state government, aware that NAEP test results for 4th graders would be used as a national benchmark, contrived a high-pass filter for third-grade pupils seeking advancement to the fourth grade. The state failed a lot of 3rd graders, mostly blacks and Hispanics. Since even a Hispanic can learn one year’s worth of course material in two years, and since blacks also benefit, somewhat, from having double the normal time to learn that material, Florida’s public schools appeared to have worked a miracle of reform—when they hadn’t.
I’ve seen this happen often enough that I’ve concluded that no declaration of racial gap closure in academic achievement should be believed without some kind of careful examination of the details. Yes, I’m aware that Gwinnett County is “diverse,” and I’m aware that part of the basis of the award is closing the racial gaps, although that is more of a political goal than an educational one. An educational goal would be to boost every student as far as he can go, not neglect one group to intensify efforts to boost another. What Gwinnett’s Broad Prize win probably means is that Gwinnett County’s public schools need some checking over by a team of Sherlock Holmeses from GBI.
David Sims
October 20th, 2010
7:20 pm
Errata.
I wrote:
Although it has not yet become as nationally famous, something similar has been going on in the public schools of New York City, where the exit from office of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quickly followed by the discovery that the “closure of the racial gaps” on NYC public school test scores was illusory. That’s probably a nice way of saying fraudulent.
Correction:
Michael Bloomberg remains mayor of New York City. I incorrectly stated that he had left office. Nonetheless, the discovery that the gains in overall test scores and the closure of the racial gaps in academic achievement, which Mayor Bloomberg himself had bragged about before Congress, have been proved not really to exist.
Vince
October 20th, 2010
8:32 pm
@ David…
I do agree with you on at least one item. I do not like the term “closing the gap” as it implies the students at the highest achieving level are stagnant…or at the very best making less gains than the students below them.
However, David, try not to be so cynical of what is going on in Gwinnett. As I stated earlier my children were very well prepared for higher education having graduated from Gwinnett schools. I want to relate a brief story to you. When my daughter was in 12th grade I jokingly asked her the capitals of some countries in Africa. She didn’t know them, so I asked, “What are they teaching you in that school of yours.”
Her reply was a classic. She said, “They don’t waste time teaching gifted kids stupid facts. They teach us to think.”
Indeed, she must have been right as she has a 4.0 average through her 3 years of college.
Gwinnett Teacher
October 20th, 2010
8:33 pm
I am SO proud to be a part of educating students and working with top notch educators in Gwinnett. I work in an elementary school where the teachers CARE, work extremely hard to differentiate instruction for the multiple learning styles of students, and use innovative approaches to make sure that ALL students succeed! The students speak MANY languages, come from diverse backgrounds and economic situations. The teachers and administrators have high expectations for the students and themselves. The students are respectful and excited about learning. My school is an International Baccalaureate School (Primary Years Program) which encourages international understanding, thinking outside the box, inquiry and application of knowledge. I invite ANY of the above critics to come and see first hand the kind of results we get in one of the TOP elementary schools in the country…Peachtree Elementary in Norcross!!!
prodetailer
October 20th, 2010
9:47 pm
Congratulations. Sent my kids to the finest private schools in New York City, and Gwinnett County does an excellent job. Great teachers, low tolerances and high expectations. Parents get off your rusty dusty…and help keep this school system #1. Let’s keep the momentum going. I have seen my share of public schools in motion in several states throughout the country. This award is well deserved, well earned and well rewarded! Alumni from Gwinnett are excelling in all professional careers and business opportunities. I expected and have received the following from Gwinnett County Schools: a great education for my two children, a safe learning environment, responsive teachers and administrators and an opportunity for my opinions to be heard and implemented if needed. Don’t think this school system is great……..take a tour of other county schools not only in Georgia, but across this country. To the Superintendent, administrative staff, teachers and support staff especially environmental engineers “pat yourselves on the back!”
David Sims
October 20th, 2010
9:49 pm
@Vince. Congratulations on having a very smart daughter. On the question of whether Gwinnett’s closure of the racial gaps in academic achievement should be taken at face value, note what I did when I looked over the data on that school system from Greatschools.org and from the SAT scores published by your state’s DOE. You’ll find it in an earlier post of mine. I’ll condense some of the data here.
These are some of Gwinnett County’s high schools, ranked in descending order of average SAT score for 2009.
Brookwood High School
3385 students
76% white/Asian
21% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 10
2009 SAT average score: 1625
North Gwinnett High School
3077 students:
73% white/Asian
24% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 9
2009 SAT average score: 1573
Duluth High School
2208 students
59% white/Asian
38% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 10
2009 SAT average score: 1568
Peachtree Ridge High School
3071 students
68% white/Asian
30% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 9
2009 SAT average score: 1553
Collins Hill High School
3556 students
65% white/Asian
32% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 9
2009 SAT average score: 1529
Central Gwinnett High School
2736 students
35% white/Asian
62% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 7
2009 SAT average score: 1475
South Gwinnett High School
2685 students
30% white/Asian
66% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 7
2009 SAT average score: 1414
Berkmar High School
3086 students
21% white/Asian
76% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 5
Meadowcreek High School
2300 students
19% white/Asian
79% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 5
2009 SAT average score: 1346
Notice that when these schools are ranked in descending order or average SAT scores, they are also ranked in descending order of the percentage of white/Asian students and in increasing order of black/Hispanic students. A similar thing can be said for these schools passing percentages on the EOCT. If you’ve “closed the racial gaps,” as one (self-described) Gwinnett teacher has said, then why do these correlations occur? It certainly doesn’t look to me as if you have closed them.
David Sims
October 20th, 2010
10:00 pm
I accidentally omitted a line from my last post. Where’s that EDIT button?
Berkmar High School…
2009 SAT average score: 1385
David Sims
October 20th, 2010
10:53 pm
I might as well add a few more.
Mill Creek High School
4006 students
73% white/Asian
25% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 9
2009 SAT average score: 1542
Mill Creek High’s average SAT score is a little less than what would be predicted by a least squares fit to the previous data. It’s still a very good correlation, though.
Grayson High School
3320 students
60% white/Asian
38% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 8
2009 SAT average score: 1494
Grayson High School does take its expected place between racial percentages and SAT scores shown in the previous set of Gwinnett County high schools.
Dacula High School
2336 students
57% white/Asian
41% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 8
2009 SAT average score: 1505
Dacula High School does take its expected place between racial percentages and SAT scores shown in the previous set of Gwinnett County high schools. (I regard the reversed order of Dacula and Grayson as being “in the noise” or involving a difference too small to be significant.)
David Sims
October 21st, 2010
5:26 am
Here are the three “big” public high schools in Gwinnett that I haven’t mentioned before.
Norcross High School
2947 students
39% white/Asian
58% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 7
2009 SAT average score: 1558
Now here’s a surprise. Norcross High School’s SAT scores are substantially higher than would be predicted by a least-squares fit to the other data. An anomalous data point on the chart. However, scores from other tests (indicated by the Greatschools rating of 7) are consistent with the racial percentages.
Parkview High School
2564 students
72% white/Asian
25% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 9
2009 SAT average score: 1596
Parkview ranks just above North Gwinnett in SAT scores, and just below North Gwinnett in percentage of white/Asian students. It pretty well fits the race/score correlation.
Shiloh High School
1870 students
23% white/Asian
73% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 4
2009 SAT average score: 1400
Shiloh High School does take its expected place between racial percentages and SAT scores shown in the previous set of Gwinnett County high schools.
There is one other high school in Gwinnett County, though it is a small one.
Phoenix High School
493 students
34% white/Asian
63% black/Hispanic
Greatschools rating: 7
2009 SAT average score: 1271
Phoenix has the lowest average score on the 2009 SAT of all of Gwinnett County’s high schools. Its scores on other tests would put it around the level of Central Gwinnett or South Gwinnett. Its racial demographics are similar to those of Central Gwinnett. Like Norcross High, Phoenix is anomalous for its SAT score in relation to its race percentages, though, unlike Norcross High, the direction of Phoenix High’s SAT score deviation is unfortunately in the bad direction.
Vince
October 21st, 2010
7:23 am
Yes, David…I saw your figures earlier. Phoenix is Gwinnett’s alternative high school….or think of it as an Open Campus concept. Kids go there when they need to make up a class they failed, or if they want to take a class after hours to get ahead, or if they work during the day and need to get credit hours in the afternoon or evening. It’s a great school that enables many kids to get hours for graduation when they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, otherwise.
Attentive Parent
October 21st, 2010
8:36 am
Rick Hess writes up the irony of awarding a prize to a school district trying to shut down a state charter option:
http://educationnext.org/an-awkward-moment-for-school-reformers/
It appears the Georgia Supreme Court’s ruling will be discussed nationally when it comes out.
Should Gwinnett have won the Broad Prize given its resistance to charter schools? | Get Schooled
October 21st, 2010
9:13 am
[...] to direct you to education researcher Rick Hess’ short blog this week raising concerns about the Broad Prize going to Gwinnett County, which he describes as anti-charter [...]
TINA
October 21st, 2010
4:16 pm
Gwinnett IS great!
Harriett
October 21st, 2010
6:45 pm
Sorry, Tina Gwinnett is not GREAT!! Gwinnett has serious problems with race and fair treatment of employees. What they are GREAT at is trying to cover up their corruptions!
Should Gwinnett have won the Broad Prize given its resistance to charter schools? » iThinkEducation.net!
October 21st, 2010
11:46 pm
[...] to direct you to education researcher Rick Hess’ short blog this week raising concerns about the Broad Prize going to Gwinnett County, which he describes as anti-charter system. (An overdue hat tip here to Attentive Parent for [...]
Rick
October 24th, 2010
8:51 pm
Regarding ART who thought the award mediocre since it did not include private schools. You are right, it only included public schools who accept all students with no admissions testing (like the one for Westminster students) – that means second language learners, special education students, students of modest and low incomes are all welcome. In other words, Gwinnett Public schools admits all those that private schools discriminate against.