The Broad Foundation announced last week that Georgia’s Gwinnett County district and Florida’s Orange County district are finalists for this year’s Broad Prize for Urban Education. It named just two top contenders for the first time since the $1 million competition began in 2002.
Typically, four or five districts are named as finalists for the top prize, but the Los Angeles-based philanthropy, which said it had raised the bar, noted that its board was disappointed at the “overall progress of urban school systems across the U.S.”
This is the first time Orange County has been named as a finalist. Gwinnett County won the Broad Prize in 2010 and was a finalist in 2009. The winner will be announced in September.
