CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district has won a prestigious prize in public education, which will provide $550,000 in college scholarships for needy students.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools landed the Broad Prize for Urban Education, an award the Eli and Edythe Broad (BRODE) Foundation gives annually to urban districts that show the most gains in student performance and closing minority achievement gaps.
It’s the second year in a row the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district was nominated.
Interim school superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh says Tuesday’s award tells the community the district is moving in the right direction.
More than half of Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s students are black or Latino, and more than half qualify for free or reduced lunch. But last year, the district narrowed achievement gaps between minority and white students.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.