Article Link: Aldine, Texas, District Wins Broad Prize
Author: Dakarai I. Aarons and Catherine Gewertz
Published by: Ed Week
Publication Date: September 16
Summary: The 60,000-student Aldine district, located in northern metropolitan Houston, won the Broad award for making notable achievement gains and closing gaps. The district will receive $1 million in college-scholarship money for students. The four other finalist districts will receive $250,000 each. They are: Socorro Independent School District, also in Texas; the Broward County, Fla., public schools; the Long Beach Unified School District in California; and the Gwinnett County, Ga., public schools.
Key Strategies used were alignment, developing strong principals, managed approach due to transient student pop – curriculum is managed cross-district.
Potent Quotables:
Of paramount importance, she said, has been the development of a “scope and sequence” guiding instruction in pre-K through 12th grades, and building knowledge about gathering and analyzing data, “so we know what teachers are teaching, how it’s being asessed, and that the data are being used to inform instruction.”
The district also placed a premium on developing strong principals, and supported its teachers in using one-on-one interventions to help struggling students,
Personal Reflections: While this is encouraging, it also concerns me that the limited assessment tools which render a child proficient are not measuring the kinds of skills students are likely to need in the not too distant future. “The top 10 jobs for 2010 did not exist until 2004. – Shift Happens. Are we preparing students to run the printing press in a world of offset printig? All warm weather states. No northern urban districts. Any pattern?
Cambridge Ed Tie Ins: Would be valuable to know what kind of support this district had in improving the outcomes of the schools. The article does not mention a focus on curriculum or content, but I imagine a closer look would reveal that these were given a great deal of attention.
What Next?: Find out what the PD, training methods, firms that the district utilized. Does Cambridge yet have a school market we are particularly strong in? Rural, urban, large districts, northern states?
