M-DCPS Wraps Up Impressive Year of Notable Honors

Miami - Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ students, teachers, schools and programs wrapped up the 2007-08 school year with an impressive array of honors and achievements. Among the accomplishments for the year:

Students made strong gains on the 2007-08 FCAT with the percentage of students meeting the State’s high measures increased at nearly every grade level for every subject area. Science scores improved significantly. And for the third year in a row, all grade levels scored above the national median in reading and math on the FCAT NRT.
Graduation rates improved by nearly five percent in the last school year to 63.9. This increase marks the first time that M-DCPS’ graduation rate was above 60 percent in four years.
13 Miami-Dade public schools made Newsweek magazine’s list of Top High Schools in the Nation.
Nine Miami-Dade high schools were chosen by U.S. News & World Report magazine as Best High Schools of 2008. Design & Architecture Senior High and New World School of the Arts secured spots on the magazine’s list of 100 Gold Medal High Schools. The remaining seven high schools were honored with silver and bronze medals.
191 M-DCPS teachers earned National Board Certification this school year, bringing the total of certified teachers employed in M-DCPS to 1,122.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools was named a Broad Prize Finalist for third consecutive year. The prize honors the most improved school districts in the country. M-CPS was recognized for improving student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among ethnic groups and between high- and low-income students.
Miami-Dade School Board won the prestigious Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Award from the National School Boards Association for excellence in four core areas: school board governance, closing the achievement gap, academic excellence, and community engagement.
M-DCPS’ School Improvement Zone was selected from a pool of nearly 1,000 applicants and named one of Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Top 50 Innovations in Government.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools created new educational compacts with three cities bringing the total number of municipal compacts to eight.
Competitive grants totaled $134 million, an increase of 400 percent over the last four years, bringing the total of grants this year to more than $430 million.
Students completing the ELEVATE MIAMI Rites of Passage Initiative, a partnership between the District and the City of Miami, received a free computer to take home.
M-DCPS earned national recognition as co-winner of the 2008 Connect-ED Leadership through Communication Award.
Assistant Principal Hilca Thomas, of Howard A. Doolin Middle School, was named the 2008 National Assistant Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Thomas also was among a group of M-DCPS principals and assistant principals to win five of six Outstanding Leadership Awards from the Florida Department of Education.
George Washington Carver Middle School and Design & Architecture Senior High School were among 287 schools chosen nationwide as 2007 No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools.
The Young Men’s Academy for Academic & Civic Development at Miami Douglas MacArthur South was awarded the 2008 Ethel Percy Andrus Legacy Award for Innovation by the AARP for their volunteer work with the Gelber Center for adults.
Sunset Elementary School was the national winner of a $25,000 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education for engaging its students to learn about other world regions, cultures and languages.
South Hialeah Elementary and Miami Springs Middle schools were honored with the Healthy Schools Program’s Recognition Award. The two schools were chosen out of 230 schools nationwide to perform at a high level in implementing the Healthy Schools program.

            M-DCPS athletes made it to the big leagues this school year, with three school teams appearing center stage in the national arena. The football seasons for Miami Northwestern and Booker T. Washington senior highs had storybook endings when both schools each won a national championship. Felix Varela High ruled with a different type of “football” with their first national championship in soccer.
            Throughout the year, M-DCPS also amassed more than a dozen team state championships in a variety of sports including wrestling, track & field, softball, girls’ tennis and boys’ volleyball.
            Edison Park Elementary made headlines of its own when the Raider Rooks chess team beat 30 other schools to tie for first place at the Lerner National Elementary (K-6) Chess Championship in Pittsburgh.