Three educators noted for their efforts to raise academic standards and improve school accountability were awarded the prestigious Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education last week. Libia Socorro Gil, S. Dennis Littky, and Eric J. Smith were the 2002 recipients of the prize.
Ms. Gil, who served as the superintendent of the 25,000-student Chula Vista Elementary School District in Los Altos, Calif., for nine years, is leaving Chula Vista this week to take a job as the chief academic officer for the Alexandria, Va.-based New American Schools, a nonprofit organization that promotes ways of raising student achievement. She was recognized for improving education for a diverse group of students.
Mr. Littky, 58, is the co-director of the Big Picture Co. Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Providence, R.I., that is putting in place school reform models that emphasize smaller class sizes and more individual attention for students. He is also co-principal of the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, a state-sponsored high school in Providence that models research-based educational practices.
Mr. Smith, 52, who helped improve students’ mathematics and reading achievement when he was the superintendent of North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools from 1995 to 2002, recently became the superintendent of the 76,000- student Anne Arundel County schools in Maryland.
Established in 1988, the McGraw education prize is given annually by the New York City-based McGraw Hill Cos. Each winner receives $25,000.
—Catherine A. Carroll
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