Education Trust Launches High-Performing Schools, Districts Initiative; Honors Schools, Districts Narrowing Gaps 11/5/2003
From: Jeanne Brennan, 202-293-1217 ext. 328, Nicolle Grayson, ext. 351, or Kimberly Holmes, ext 292 News Advisory: DATE: Thursday, Nov. 6 TIME: 9:30-10:30 a.m. LOCATION: The Grand Hyatt Hotel, Lafayette Park Room, 1000 H St, N.W., Washington, D.C. WHO: -- Kati Haycock, Director, Education Trust -- Craig Jerald, Principal Partner, Education Trust -- Dr. John O. Simpson, Superintendent, Norfolk Public Schools, Va. -- George Albano, Principal, Lincoln Elementary School, Mount Vernon, N.Y. At 9:30 a.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 6, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C., the Education Trust will officially launch its High-Performing Schools and Districts Initiative by bringing together schools and districts that are raising achievement for all students and narrowing gaps between groups of students. The Education Trust will also be offering a special media-preview at the press conference of the newest version of its interactive school data web site, Dispelling the Myth Online (Version 2.0), featuring disaggregated data of the kind required by No Child Left Behind. Later in the conference, the Education Trust will be honoring 20 schools and school districts with its first annual Dispelling the Myth Awards. -- Launching the Education Trust's High-Performing Schools and Districts Work - Craig Jerald, director of the new initiative, will outline the different projects that are part of the work, including the development of new interactive web tools and on-the-ground research studies on high-performing schools across the country. He will also discuss a whole new set of projects focused specifically on high-performing high schools funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. -- Hearing from High Performers - Dr. John O. Simpson, Superintendent of Norfolk Public Schools (VA), and Mr. George Albano, Principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Mount Vernon, NY, will talk about their own gap closing efforts and why participating in this year's conference with other high-performing, high-improving, and gap-closing schools and districts from around the nation is so important. -- Special Media Preview: Dispelling the Myth Online (Version 2.0) - This powerful revamped and updated version of Dispelling the Myth Online takes the mission and work of the Education Trust to a whole new level. This searchable school performance database now includes disaggregated achievement data in twenty-nine states, allowing educators, researchers, policymakers and journalists to instantly generate lists of schools that are successfully educating low-income, African American and/or Latino students, and to instantly find schools in those states that are raising achievement for all students and closing the gap. No other publicly available nationwide web tool allows users to search for schools in this way. -- First Annual Dispelling the Myth Awards (5:30-7 p.m., Friday, November 7, Room: Constitution A) -- This year the Education Trust is honoring high-performing, high-improving, and gap-narrowing schools and districts from around the nation with its first annual Dispelling the Myth Awards. Through high expectations, hard work, and smarter ways of working, these schools and districts are helping to dispel the devastating myth that poor and minority children cannot learn to high academic levels. Day in and day out, they remind us that we can't turn back the clock on our commitment to fulfill the true promise of American education for ALL of this nation's public school children. 2003 Dispelling the Myth Award winners: DISTRICTS -- Boston Public Schools, Mass. -- Garden Grove Unified School District, Calif. -- Jefferson County Public Schools, Ky. -- Aldine Independent School District, Texas -- Long Beach Unified School District, Calif. -- Houston Independent School District, Texas -- Norfolk Public Schools, Va. -- Fontana Unified School District, Calif. SCHOOLS -- Longfellow Elementary School (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) -- St. James - Gaillard Elementary School (Orangeburg County, S.C.) -- KIPP DC: KEY Academy (Washington, D.C.) -- Sycamore Elementary School (Kokomo, Ind.) -- Lincoln Elementary School (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) -- Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School (Alexandria, Va.) -- Centennial Place Elementary School (Atlanta, Ga.) -- David D. Jones Elementary School (Guilford County, N.C.) -- South Scotland Elementary School (Scotland County, N.C.) -- The Young Women's Leadership School of East Harlem (New York, N.Y.) -- YES College Preparatory School (Houston ISD, Texas) -- West Manor Elementary School (Atlanta, GA) |