For the third time, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has been named one of the nation’s most-improved, urban school districts by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

CMS will now compete with three other districts -- Broward County, Fla.; Miami-Dade County, Fla.; and the Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso, Texas -- for the 2011 Broad Prize for Urban Education.

The award is given each year to a large, urban school district that demonstrate the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among poor and minority students.

A winner will be announced on Sept. 20 in Washington, D.C.

The top district will receive $550,000 in college scholarships for high school seniors graduating in 2012. The three finalists each will receive $150,000 in scholarships.

All four districts vying for this year’s top prize have been Broad finalists in previous years. CMS was a finalist in 2010 and 2004.

In announcing this year’s finalists, Eli Broad, founder of the Broad Foundation, said, "Charlotte-Mecklenburg can truly be proud of the remarkable progress its students, teachers and schools have made."

Among the reasons CMS was chosen, according to CMS officials:

Among the reasons that Charlotte-Mecklenburg was chosen as a 2011 Broad Prize finalist:

• In 2010, the percent of CMS’s African-American and Hispanic students performing at the highest achievement level (level IV) in reading and math at all school levels (elementary, middle, and high school) on state assessments ranked in the top third compared with African-American and Hispanic students in other North Carolina districts.
   
• In recent years, CMS narrowed achievement gaps between African-American and white students in reading and math at all school levels. For example, between 2007 to 2010, achievement gaps between African-American and white students decreased by 11 percentage points in high school reading. In addition, Charlotte-Mecklenburg narrowed achievement gaps between Hispanic and white students in math at all school levels, and in reading at the middle and high school levels.
   
• In recent years, CMS was more successful than at least 70 percent of other North Carolina districts at increasing the percentage of low-income students who performed at the highest achievement level (level IV) in reading and math at the middle and high school levels. For example, between 2007 and 2010, the percentage of low-income students performing at the highest achievement level increased an average of 6 percentage points per year in high school math compared with an average 2 percentage point increase per year for other North Carolina districts.
   
• In recent years, the pace at which CMS narrowed achievement gaps between Hispanic and white students was among the fastest third of North Carolina districts in math at all school levels and in reading at the middle and high school levels. In addition, the pace at which Charlotte-Mecklenburg narrowed achievement gaps between African-American and white students was among the fastest third of North Carolina districts in reading and math at the elementary and high school levels.

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