PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE BROAD FOUNDATION AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO IMPROVE OUR COUNTRY'S PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM

Student Achievement Data: Easy Access and Efficient Data Now Available To All

Jacksonville, Florida -- The Broad Foundation announced today with the White House an unprecedented public/private collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, Standard & Poor's and Just for the Kids to improve our country's public education system. This announcement was made today by President George W. Bush in Jacksonville Florida, at 1:30 p.m. at the Hyde Park Elementary School.

This historic school information partnership significantly assists states in improving student performance by providing -- to all states for two years -- an easy-to-use website that transforms disaggregated student achievement data into useful decision-making information. This national website provides access to student test results and uniquely powerful data analysis for parents, educators, policy makers and business and community leaders. In addition, this initiative will facilitate the sharing of best practices across the state by making it easy to search for high performing schools and districts, compare how schools and districts are performing across a state, and understand the rate at which schools and districts must improve to meet the federal standards of the No Child Left Behind Act ("NCLB").

"The Broad Foundation is proud to be a lead partner in this national effort to demonstrate the power of a cross-sector collaboration between public, private, and non-profit entities maximizing resources to successfully improve our country's public education system," said Eli Broad, founder of The Broad Foundation and public school reform advocate. "This initiative is an example of educational innovation, resourcefulness and creativity in our national efforts to improve student achievement and make useful information more available to parents, educators, policy makers and community leaders."

This groundbreaking effort combines $4.7 million of federal funds with $50.9 million in private philanthropy to effectively lower the cost barriers associated with the data collection, analysis and reporting mandates of NCLB. By offering these powerful data tools to states for two years, the partnership intends to mitigate any additional unnecessary budget demands for states facing severe fiscal crisis and aims to fast track the building of a common national platform for parents to view and understand student achievement data.

The initiative will be launched in two phases:

Phase One:
A public-private collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education and The Broad Foundation funds a basic package of data analysis services for all fifty states under a newly created, NCLB-branded website. This basic data analysis is supplied by Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services and Just For The Kids and will focus on state academic achievement results. Phase One data analysis and reporting will provide parents, educators, local citizens, policy makers and business and community leaders with the ability to:

· Identify trends in student test results at the school, district and state level;
· Compare a state or school or district's data against meaningful benchmarks to help facilitate adequate growth;
· View student test results disaggregated by every student sub-group and every grade level mandated by NCLB;
· Compare schools and districts within a state to identify consistently high and low performers using a variety of user-selected criteria.

Phase Two:
A philanthropic partnership led by The Broad Foundation to fund a 50-state rollout of Standard & Poor's full School Evaluation Service to states for two years. This data service will allow parents to view and analyze all student test result data included in Phase One as well as:

· Additional financial, demographic, school environment, and spending information on school districts;
· A unique Return On Resources analysis that examines the relationship between student achievement and spending given a district's learning environment, demographics, and finances.

The U.S. Department of Education announced that state participation and full reporting of data through this initiative constitutes complete reporting compliance as required by NCLB.

The Broad Foundation was founded in 1999 by Eli and Edythe Broad. The Foundation was started with an initial investment of $100 million that has since been increased by the Broad family to over $400 million. The Foundation's mission is to dramatically improve K-12 urban public education through better governance, management and labor relations. In addition to investing in a national portfolio of grants, The Broad Foundation's three flagship initiatives include: The $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education, awarded each year to urban school districts making the greatest overall improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps between ethnic and income groups; The Broad Center for Superintendents, a national effort focused on identifying, training and supporting outstanding leaders from education, business, government, nonprofit and the military to become successful urban school superintendents; and The Broad Institute for School Boards, an annual training program for newly elected and appointed urban school board members designed to increase student achievement through improved governance. For more information, visit www.broadfoundation.org.

U. S. Department of Education Press Release

2003-09-09

Business partners often play a significant role in school improvement efforts. They provide resources to help schools become successful. The JFTK School Reports can help businesses identify how their assistance impacts student achievement by showing how schools perform over time. Business partners can also use the JFTK Best Practice Framework to learn about the practices common to successful schools and how benchmarking, or setting standards, is a powerful tool in school improvement efforts.

If corporate partners wish to enter a school partnership, our information can help identify schools in critical need of help. Once a partnership has been established, corporate partners are encouraged to reinforce and support the strategies that have proven successful in high-performing schools. Our investigation of high-performing schools directs you to the programs and strategies that have had the biggest impact on school improvement. Finally, corporate partners can assess the impact of their assistance by using the JFTK School Reports to look at a school's academic performance to determine how student achievement has been impacted.

Communities Just for the Kids aims to help members of public school communities work successfully with educators to raise student achievement using Just for the Kids' School Reports and Best Practices Framework.

Best Practices Self-Audit

Best Practices

The 2002 Broad Foundation Retreat