New York City will accept $500,000 in scholarship funding after receiving the nation’s most prestigious prize awarded for improvement in urban education, the Broad Prize.

Secretary of Education Spellings made the announcement in Washington, D.C., yesterday on behalf of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Mayor Bloomberg, whose stated goal when he took control of the public schools in 2002 was to become New York City’s “education mayor,” accepted on behalf of the city.

The Broad Foundation painted a picture of great progress being made between 2003 and 2006, with reading and math scores in the city improving more than in statewide districts with similar income levels, and gaps between white and Hispanic and between white and black students narrowing by 14 and 13 percentage points, respectively.

“If it can be done in New York City, it can be done anywhere,” Mr. Broad said in a statement praising Mr. Bloomberg’s leadership. Mr. Broad has donated millions of dollars to the city’s schools funding five different program areas, a Department of Education spokesman, David Cantor, said.

Critics of Mr. Bloomberg’s changes in the school system greeted the honor with skepticism.

A parent who had been part of a group interviewed by Broad Prize officials about impressions of the city schools, David Quintana, said the decision seemed to ignore his comments, which were mostly complaints.

The city’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, said that recent reports in The New York Sun and the Daily News about the changing difficulty of state tests call the apparent gains into question.

“Here’s the reality: New York City still maintains dismally low graduation rates, especially for black and Latino students, and the DOE has failed to engage parents,” she said, referring to the Department of Education. “If we are no. 1 in terms of achievement, it’s pretty sad news for the rest of the country.”