Two California educators and Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado have been awarded the 1996 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education.
Each year, the New York City-based McGraw-Hill Companies awards the $25,000 prizes to as many as three people who have made outstanding contributions to education.
Gov. Romer has been a leader in the national effort to set high academic standards for students. In Colorado, he has secured legislation that requires school districts to adopt clear standards for what students should know and be able to do in six core subjects.
Also honored were Yvonne Chan, the principal of Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, a pre-K-6 school in Los Angeles, and Donald W. Ingwerson, the superintendent of the Los Angeles County office of education.
Ms. Chan’s cost-saving and fund-raising efforts saved the center more than $1 million during her first year, providing the resources to, among other things, reduce class sizes, extend the length of the school year, and give her students access to the Internet.
As the head of the education office for the Los Angeles County board of supervisors, Mr. Ingwerson oversees education issues for the county’s 9.4 million students, including those in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest district. He is a former superintendent of the Jefferson County, Ky., schools, where he spent 12 years.
The I Have a Dream Foundation has named Kenneth Lewis as the new chairman of its board of directors. He will replace the program’s founder, Eugene M. Lang, who resigned recently as chairman. Mr. Lang will remain a director and has been designated founder and chairman emeritus of the New York City-based organization, which provides financial assistance, mentoring, and tutoring to underprivileged college-bound students.
--ADRIENNE D. COLESacoles@epe.org
