BROWNSVILLE, Texas

One of the nation's poorest school districts, already tousled by a hurricane and nervously awaiting division by a fence being built along the U.S.-Mexican border, won  the coveted $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education  last week in recognition of its academic advances.

The prize will be divided among the district's graduating seniors for college scholarships.

"This is considered the Nobel Prize in education," an elated Hector Gonzales, the district's superintendent, said by phone at the award presentation in New York. "It will help us move to the next level where all our students succeed."

Announcing the decision in New York, Eli Broad, founder of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, said: "Brownsville is the best kept secret in America. In the face of stark poverty, Brownsville is outpacing other large urban districts nationwide because it is smartly focusing all resources on directly supporting students and teachers."

The Brownsville Independent School District serves nearly 50,000 students -- 98 percent Hispanic and 43 percent who are learning English. Ninety-four percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, a common measure of poverty. Surrounding Cameron County had the highest poverty rate for a county of its size in the country at 34.7 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Dora Sauceda, the school's principal, said the recognition is a great bonus on top of the desperately needed scholarship money.

"We're just a little town on the border," she said. "It means something that someone in New York is recognizing our work and our students."

Brownsville, in the southernmost tip of Texas, beat out finalists from Aldine, a district in Houston; Broward County, Fla.; Long Beach, Calif.; and Miami-Dade County, Fla. Each finalist will receive $250,000 for college scholarships.

The Broad scholarships will go to graduating seniors who have financial need and have improved academically in high school. The first-place money doubled this year. Brownsville, a first-time finalist, is the second Texas district to win. Houston Independent School District won the inaugural prize in 2002. Last year's winner was the New York City Department of Education.