On Thursday, November 8 in Washington, D.C., The Education Trust Presented the fifth annual Dispelling the Myth awards to Lockhart
Junior High School, one of four schools from throughout the U.S. that has achieved exceptional success in educating students to high
academic levels.

The Dispelling the Myth awards were created by The Education Trust to honor high-performing and gap-closing schools from around
the nation that serve large populations of low-income students or students of color. Schools are recognized for making significant
strides in narrowing gaps in academic achievement among student groups, posting achievement that significantly exceeds state
averages, or improving student performance at a rapid pace.

Featuring remarks by Roger Wilkins, the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University and former Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer for The Washington Post, the awards ceremony will be held during the 18^th Education Trust
National Conference, the leading annual symposium on closing the achievement gaps that persist in our nation’s schools. Participants
at this year’s conference, themed “Courageous Choices: Tackling the Tough Issues to Raise Student Achievement and Close Gaps,
” will examine proven strategies and practices that produce higher achievement levels, from pre-kindergarten all the way through
college.  

While there is no “silver bullet” strategy employed by successful schools, several common themes emerge from the practices of the
2007 Dispelling the Myth award recipients. Among them are having high expectations for all students, improving instruction, analyzing
data to track student progress and individual student needs, providing a rich curriculum that is aligned to state standards, and using
purposeful professional development to improve teachers’ skills.

“Through high expectations, hard work, and smarter ways of working, Dispelling the Myth schools are helping to dispel the devastating
myth that poor and minority children cannot learn to high academic levels,” said Kati Haycock, President of The Education Trust. 
“These schools know they still have work to do, but they challenge the conventional wisdom that gaps are inevitable and remind us
that we can’t turn back the clock on our commitment to fulfill the true promise of American education for every single one of our
nation’s students.”