Closing the achievement gap.

The Aldine Independent School District (AISD) outside Houston won the 2009 Broad Prize for Urban Education, the largest education award in the country, and as a result will receive $1 million in college scholarships from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. ??Aldine, where a majority of students qualify for free and reduced-price meals, has "shown some of the most consistent student achievement gains nationally in the last decade and has been recognized as one of the top five most improved urban American school systems in four of the last six years." Other finalist districts for the 2009 prize were Broward County Public Schools in Florida; Gwinnett County Public Schools outside Atlanta (see "Innovations in the News"); the Long Beach Unified School District in California; and Socorro Independent School District in Texas. (Sept. 2009)

A combination of educational and social barriers, including family care-taking responsibilities, poor academic preparation, and gender stereotyping, are causing Latina students to drop out of high school, according to a new study by the National Women's Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The two organizations used surveys, interviews, and focus groups to concentrate on high school issues encountered by Latinas. The study was prompted in part by an earlier law center report concerning girls' graduation rates that revealed disproportionally high dropout rates for Latinas. Researchers reported a substantial gap between Latinas' educational goals and their personal expectations about reaching those goals. (August 2009)

More than 1.5 million students in the class of 2009 took the SAT, the most college-bound students of any graduating class and the most diverse annual group of students to take the college admission exam, according to the College Board. Forty percent of the 2009 SAT takers were minority students, a more than 10 percent increase in that group since 1999, when minority students constituted only 29 percent of the test takers. (August 2009)