Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education

The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education annually recognizes outstanding individuals who have dedicated themselves to improving education in this country and whose accomplishments are making a difference today. Honorees are chosen by a distinguished panel of judges made up of thoughtful and influential members of the education community. Each winner receives a gift of $25,000 and a bronze sculpture. The Prize was established in 1988 to honor Mr. McGraw's lifelong commitment to education, and to mark the Corporation's 100th anniversary.

Past honorees include: former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley; the former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige; the Honorable James B. Hunt, Jr., former Governor of North Carolina; James P. Comer, M.D., Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale University Child Study Center; Yvonne Chan, Ed.D., Principal, Vaughn Next Century Learning Center; Mary E. Diez, Ph.D., Dean of Education, Alverno College; Carl Cohn, former Superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District; Barbara Bush, founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy; and Dennis Littky, Co-Director of The Met, and Director of the Principal Residency Network.

Maximum Award: Each winner receives a gift of $25,000 and a bronze sculpture.

Eligibility: The following criteria will be used in selecting the recipients of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education.

Today there is much discussion about 'scaling up' successful strategies in education resulting in a growth and expansion of student academic achievement in ways never previously imagined. The McGraw Prize in Education for 2010 will look at this concept and salute educational leaders who are building upon successes in practices, programs or policies at three levels of education – elementary, secondary, and post-secondary. The leaders could exhibit strong school-business partnerships, family engagement, us of cutting edge-technology, data-driven decision making, among other practices that are shown to be effective. The emphasis this year is to highlight those in education who started out small and took their successes to meet the needs for a larger audience, whether it was within their district, to the rest of the state or nationwide.

Elementary: the practices of an elementary school level leader showing improved student academic achievement through attention to effective literacy and numeracy strategies that were then extended to other settings.

Secondary: A high school leader who engages a team of educational innovators and prepares students for the academic success required in school, the skill levels necessary for jobs in the 21st Century and then success in institutions of higher education.

Post Secondary: A leader in a community college, college or university who designs a system that tracks its students over time to monitor what works and doesn’t work so that future students can benefit from these effective practices and the schools have a better chance of retaining students and graduating them.

Deadline: March 19, 2010

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