The following criteria will be used in selecting the recipients of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education.

• Because the United States faces the unprecedented prospect of a younger generation less well-educated than its parents, the 2008 McGraw Prize in Education will celebrate the theme of providing more education to our entire population of young people.
• Nominations should showcase the people behind the educational programs that recognize that today’s global economy demands that the United States educate all of its young people to levels that were required for only a small proportion of them a century ago. Special attention will be paid to programs that address students from low-income, minority and other groups traditionally underserved by our education system.
• Nominees can include researchers, practitioners, policy makers or others who have established themselves as significant pioneers who have understood this challenge and developed important new ways to address it.
• Prize winners will be chosen from these categories:
  • Pre-secondary—Efforts to give underserved young people the academic skills and attitudes needed to succeed in high school. These might range from programs aimed at breaking the link between achievement and socioeconomic status, to efforts to promote college awareness in middle schools.
  • High schools—Individual educators or leaders of non-profit organizations who have devised innovative ways to reduce the high school drop-out rate through instruction, counseling, college partnerships, the raising of aspirations and other means.
  • Higher education—Efforts by colleges or non-profit organizations to attract high-achieving, low-income students and, equally important, to provide mentoring and other services designed to assure that they will succeed once enrolled.

Please visit the Past Winners section of this site to learn more about the accomplishments and dedication demonstrated by previous recipients of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education.