Keynote speaker is Geena Davis, Academy Award-Winning Actor and Founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

SAUGUS, Mass., Sept.

The Brownsville Independent School District (BISD) in Texas won the 2008 Broad Prize for Urban Education, the largest education prize in the country awarded to the most improved urban school district, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced today.

By EDWARD MASON Boston will be forced to consolidate or even shutter some schools next academic year because of fiscal conditions even as the system moves to enhance educational programs, according to School Superintendent Carol Johnson.

After six years of increased national attention on "Broad Prize" school districts - those urban school districts that have demonstrated the strongest growth in student achievement in America while narrowing achievement gaps between income and ethnic groups - The Broad Prize for Urban Education has been doubled to $2 million by the board of governors of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, it was announced today.