City Wins Top Urban Education Award

New York City has won the nation's most prestigious prize for urban education, known as the Broad Prize.

The announcement by the Broad Foundation is expected at noon today in Washington, D.C. Mayor Bloomberg, the city schools chancellor, Joel Klein, and the president of the city teachers union, Randi Weingarten, are scheduled to attend the announcement, spokesmen for the leaders said.

The prize was established in 2002 by the Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad to honor urban school systems that narrow gaps between racial groups and boost the performance of poor students. It relies heavily on test score data to determine which school systems are named finalists.

A member of the prize's jury told The New York Sun that he favored the city above the four other finalists because of its sheer size — with 1.1 million students and 1,450 schools, the public school system here is the largest in the nation — and its progress in closing the racial achievement gap.

"New York City's got a terrific story to tell and I was very impressed with the rate of progress that's been made," the jurist said. "It's a tribute to everyone who's worked on it. The kids of New York are the real winners."

He said votes had been tallied several weeks ago to decide which of five finalist cities would win the prize. The jury member asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak in advance of today's announcement.

This is New York City's third consecutive year as a finalist.

When Mr. Broad offered his prize to the Long Beach, California, school district in 2003, he invited Mr. Klein, who had just been named schools chancellor, to attend the announcement. New York City was not nominated for the prize, but Mr. Broad challenged Mr. Klein to change that in coming years.

Mr. Klein reportedly said, "I hope you hear the footprints, because these are big footprints coming up behind you."

In the years since, Mr. Broad has been a vocal proponent and a financial supporter of Messrs. Bloomberg and Klein's reorganization of the school system.

The winner of the Broad Prize receives $500,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors.