Broad Foundation Endows $40 Million for College Scholarship Prize

To mark the 10th anniversary of The Broad Prize for Urban Education, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced it will endow the award with $40 million to ensure its sustainable distribution for decades to come.

The annual award honors large urban school districts that demonstrate the strongest student achievement and improvement while narrowing achievement gaps between income and ethnic groups.

While the prize recognizes the school district, the beneficiaries are actually the students.

Graduating seniors from Broad Prize winning and finalist districts are eligible for two- or four-year scholarships, depending on the type of higher education institution they choose to attend.

The Broad Prize winning district receives $1 million in college scholarships for graduating high school seniors, and the finalist districts each receive $250,000 in college scholarships.

More: About the Broad Prize

The Broad Prize eligibility requirements were recently tightened so that 75 districts will be eligible each year, down from 100. With fewer eligible districts, the number of finalists each year will be reduced from five to four.

The change was made to "ensure the school districts recognized by The Broad Prize as having the greatest overall student improvement and performance are truly urban and comparable," according to the foundation.