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Public Information - Press ReleaseRelease
Date: Immediate GGUSD Honored With New Award from Education Trust for Improving Student Achievement The Garden Grove Unified School District is the recipient of its second national education award within two months for improving student achievement. The GGUSD is among eight school districts chosen for the first annual Dispelling the Myth Awards presented by the Education Trust, an independent education research and advocacy organization. District representatives accepted the award earlier this month at The Education Trust’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. In September, the district was again recognized as one of five finalists for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, the annual $1 million award honoring the most outstanding urban school systems in the nation. The GGUSD received another $125,000 for student scholarships as a 2003 finalist. “We continue to see the dividends of our higher expectations for all students this district serves,” explained Bob Harden, President of the Board of Education. “We have adopted a ‘no excuses’ philosophy for learning. Regardless of the challenges, our teachers, administrators, and support staff strive to help every child as they work to meet or exceed academic standards.” As with the Broad Prize, the honor by the Education Trust recognizes districts that are raising achievement for all students while at the same time narrowing performance gaps across ethnic lines and between high and low income students. The other recipients are Boston Public Schools, Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky, Aldine and Houston Independent School districts in Texas, Long Beach Unified School District, Norfolk Public Schools in Virginia, and Fontana Unified School District. “Through high expectations, hard work, and smarter ways of working, these districts are helping to dispel the devastating myth that poor and minority children cannot learn to high academic levels,” said Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust. “Day in and day out, they remind us that we can’t turn back the clock on our commitment to fulfill the true promise of American education for all of this nation’s public school children.” The annual awards program is one component of the new ‘High Performing Schools and Districts’ Initiative unveiled this month by the Education Trust. The cornerstone of the project is Dispelling the Myth Online, a searchable internet research tool with achievement data broken down by race and poverty level for schools in 29 states. The database enables users to instantly identify model schools that are successfully educating low-income and minority students. The Garden Grove Unified School District serves most of Garden Grove and portions of Santa Ana, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Cypress, Stanton, and Anaheim.
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