From an Aldine ISD press release:

Aldine ISD’s Hambrick Middle School and Stephens Elementary School have been named 2010 National Excellence in Urban Education Award winners from San Diego State’s University’s National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST).

Hambrick and Stephens, along with 11 other national winners from across the country, will be honored at the Fifth Annual NCUST High Performing Urban Schools Symposium set for May 5-7 in Long Beach, CA.

“If every school in America served diverse populations of students as well as these 13 schools, achievement gaps would be eliminated,” said Dr. Joseph F. Johnson, Jr., executive director of NCUST.

Hambrick Middle, under the direction of principal Cindy Rogers, and Stephens Elementary, under the direction of principal Raymond Stubblefield, will each receive $1,000, a large banner that will be displayed at the respective schools, a commemorative photo album and a profile on the NCUST website. In addition, Aldine ISD will receive complimentary travel and registration for district personnel to attend the NCUST High Performing Urban Schools Symposium where the winning schools are featured as presenters in interactive sessions, and attendees from lower performing schools can ask questions of how the 13 winning schools lowered achievement gaps among student subgroups.

To be eligible, schools must have high numbers of low-income students and may not have selective admission policies. Test results must be better than the state average on required assessments, and show little or no achievement gap between demographic groups of students. All schools must have high attendance rates, low suspension rates, high graduation rates and exceed the federal government’s NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for at least the past two years, along with other evidence of student success.

Among the applicant schools that met the criteria, 25 finalists were chosen.

“Our evaluation teams visited each finalist school,” said Dr. Lynn Perez, NCUST senior researcher. “We saw many impressive schools, including many National Blue Ribbon Schools, Nation Title I Distinguished Schools, and schools that have received many other awards and distinctions. Our very difficult task was to select the best from the best!”

At the winning schools researchers found impressive evidence of:

•Students learning challenging academic content and skills in reading, writing, science, mathematics, and social studies that exceeded grade level expectations.

•Students benefitting from excellent academic support structures that helped ensure their success in learning the challenging content.

•Teachers using engaging instructional methods that helped students perceive learning as interesting, relevant to their lives and fun.

•Students, parents, teachers and staff reporting that they felt respected and valued by one another and by the school administrators.

Another outstanding feature of the winning schools is the commitment of their teachers and administrators to continue to set and pursue even more challenging academic goals, even though these schools already have achieved results that far exceeded state or federal expectations.

NCUST has supported more than 200 urban schools nationwide with recognition, research and leadership development. NCUST is a part of the QUALCOMM Institute for Innovation and Educational Success at San Diego State University. QUALCOMM is the underwriter for the Excellence in Urban Education Awards. Other generous sponsors are McGraw Hill Education Division and SDSU College of Education.

For more information on the National Excellence in Urban Education Awards visit their website at: http://www.ncust.org.