Franklin H. Williams Award
The Franklin H. Williams Award, sponsored by the Peace Corps/USA Program, was given to three graduates of the Peace Corps fellows program at Teachers College, Columbia University. The award, which honors African-Americans who have served in the Peace Corps, is named after an early pioneer in the Peace Corps who was also a noted civil rights activist. The recipients and the schools where they teach, all in New York City, are: Fanshen Cox, Morris High School; Angela Pruitt, Bushwick High School; and Ira Weston, Robeson High School for Business and Technology.
Magna Awards
The 1999 Magna Awards, sponsored by The American School Board Journal, recognize 23 school districts for outstanding programs that advance student learning.
The winner of the $2,000 grand prize is: West Hartford (Conn.) Public Schools, for “Excellence Without Exception: Extended Learning Opportunities K-5.” Two districts and their programs were honored as citation winners: Bellflower (Calif.) Unified School District, for its Intensive Learning Center; and Elk Grove (Calif.) Unified School District, for its Twilight Family Learning Center.
The remaining districts received an honorable mention and are listed below by state.
Arizona. Litchfield Elementary School District, Litchfield.
California. Burton Elementary School District, Porterville.
Georgia. Bibb County Public Schools, Macon. Indiana. School City of Hammond. Hammond.
Iowa. Community School District, Victor; Mount Ayr Community School District, Mount Ayr.
Massachusetts. Boston Public Schools, Boston.
Mississippi. New Albany Public Schools, New Albany.
Nebraska. Millard Public School District, Omaha.
New York. South Colonie Central Schools, Albany; Albion Central School System, Albion; Ossining Union Free School District, Ossining.
North Carolina. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Charlotte; Guilford County Schools, Greensboro.
Oklahoma. Francis Tuttle Area Vocational Technical School, Oklahoma City; Gordon Cooper Technology Center, Shawnee.
Pennsylvania. Upper Moreland School District, Willow Grove.
Tennessee. Paris Special School District, Paris; Aldine Independent School District, Houston.
Utah. Granite School District, Salt Lake City.
Other Honors and Awards
Francesca Carroll, a 4th grade teacher at Public School 69 in the New York City borough of Staten Island, is the grand-prize winner in the “Bright Orange Teacher Contest,” sponsored by the cable television channel Nickelodeon. Ms. Carroll submitted a cable-television channel. Ms. Carroll was recognized for a creative lesson plan that demonstrated how students should respond in emergency situations.
Denise McKeon, a senior policy analyst and program consultant for the National Education Association, has been awarded the 1999 Fred W. Malkemes Prize by New York University’s school of continuing and professional studies. Ms. McKeon won the $1,000 award for her article “Best Practices--Hype or Hope?,” which was published in the August 1998 issue of TESOL Quarterly.