Three educators were announced as winners of the 2006 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education last week in New York City.
Norman R. Augustine, the retired chairman and chief executive officer of the Lockheed Martin Corp., was honored for his commitment to fostering science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills. Mr. Augustine recently chaired the National Academies Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy and is a member of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.
Also receiving the award was Wendy Kopp, the president and founder of Teach for America, the New York City-based group that places recent college graduates in two-year teaching jobs in urban and rural public schools.
The other winner was Vincent D. Murray, the principal of Henry W. Grady High School in Atlanta. The inner-city school has made significant leaps in its passing rate on Georgia’s graduation test, and now around 80 percent of Grady’s graduates go directly to college. The winners each received a $25,000 award and were honored at a dinner at the New York Public Library.
