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Providing students with critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills will equip them for the future. We must change how we look at the world and see the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and social systems.  We must respect the values and beliefs of all people and make strategic decisions now that will yield the best possible outcome for the future.  These are ideas that are transferable across grade-levels and content areas.

Teachers have a vital role in making this change for the future.  Teachers are powerful.  They are shaping the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the future.  They are instilling practices and ways of thinking that will impact the next generation of our society.  I believe that once teachers acknowledge and truly own this role in the classroom, they will begin to be more culturally responsive in their teaching.  As teachers begin the see theinterconnectedness of our world and consider how our actions impact the future, students will do the same.  Integration of current events into the daily curriculum is one way that teachers can engage students and begin to foster discussions about sustainability in the elementary classroom.

I want to make a difference in the world and I believe that I can.  I have chosen the right profession in order to do so.  I am a teacher.

Kristen Kortman recently graduated from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at ASU.  Beginning Fall 2013, Kristen will be teaching 6th grade science at Kyrene del Pueblo Middle School in the Kyrene School District.

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While we have progress to make in realizing a world-class education system, as a state we have taken important initial steps toward achieving this goal. Arizona schools are currently implementing a number of key reforms that are designed to improve our schools and increase accountability, including Arizona’s Common Core Standards, school A-F letter grades, Move on When Reading, and teacher and principal evaluations. These reforms are raising the bar for our students and for the State’s education system as a whole.

Implementing these reforms will require a strategic investment of new and existing resources in Arizona’s schools. We can’t have new standards without teacher professional development, new textbooks, and other instructional materials. We also won’t see success with third graders reading by third grade if we don’t fund interventions to help all students succeed. Undergirding all of this is the need to have a high quality data system that will support instruction and accountability.

The Legislature is currently developing the state’s FY14 budget that has the potential to support these reforms. The Governor has proposed and the Senate has passed a budget that includes funding to work toward implementing these reforms, accountability systems, and a State data system. We strongly urge the House to take action now and pass a budget aligned with the Governor and the Senate in this area.

While we know the funding in the budget will not meet all of Arizona’s needs to achieve a world-class education, it is a positive step forward and should provide a foundation for similar, continued investments over the next few years.

Glenn Hamer (left) is President & CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Thomas Franz (right) is President & CEO of Greater Phoenix Leadership and a member of Expect More Arizona’s Board of Directors.

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So what does this mean for Arizona students?

It means that high school is no longer the finish line. All Arizona students need to be prepared for and to complete postsecondary education or training once they graduate from high school.  For some students this will mean going to a community college or a four-year university.  For others, it will mean pursuing a license or certificate, apprenticeship, or advanced training in their field of choice.

To help students better prepare for and understand all of these options they can pursue after high school, Expect More Arizona and Northern Arizona University’s GEAR UP program have recently released an updated version of the College and Career Planning Guide.

Developed for Arizona’s 8^th grade students, the Guide helps students set high expectations for their future by asking them to dream, plan, work hard, and track the progress they make towards their goals.  It educates students about the types of educational opportunities they can pursue after high school and the types of credentials they can earn.  The Guide also offers checklists to help students track their progress in 8th through 12th grades, gives tips on finding financial aid, and offers advice on the type of courses needed to graduate.

The Guide can be used by teachers, advisors, counselors, or other adults to have meaningful conversations with students about their career interests and the education or training they’ll need for those careers.  Parents and families can also use the Guide with their children to help them plan for their futures.

Additionally, GEAR UP is working to prepare Arizona’s students for college and career by providing 8th graders throughout the state with the opportunity to take the EXPLORE, ACT’s curriculum-based educational and career planning program that measures achievement in English, math, reading, and science. The long-term aim of the EXPLORE Program is to significantly and sustainably increase the percentage of Arizona’s low-income 8^th graders who enter high school on track to be college and career ready; the goal is to enhance the capacity of participating middle schools to prepare students to meet college and career readiness standards.

To download the College & Career Planning Guide and access an interactive Guide, click here.

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In January of this year, Expect More Arizona launched the Expect More Excellence Tour as a way to shine a spotlight on the many great things happening in education in our state.

We were absolutely blown away at the response the Expect More Excellence Tour received, including:

• 198 submissions
• Submissions from 50 cities across Arizona
• Over 180,000 video views
• 5,000 social media shares
• Over 420,000 votes

With so much excellence to choose from, it made the task of narrowing the submissions down to 13 Spotlight Award winners an extremely difficult one. But, thanks to the hard work of our four regional selection committees, we were able to identify the best submissions that exemplify a world-class education throughout the state.

Western Arizona
Yuma Union High School District, Arizona Western College and NAU,
Dateland Elementary School

Southern Arizona
C.E. Rose Elementary School, Sunnyside Unified School District,
Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District 

Northern Arizona
Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy, Monument Valley High School,
United Way of Northern Arizona

Central Arizona
Be A Leader Foundation, Glendale Union High School District,
Great Hearts Academies, Metro Tech High School

To see some of the news coverage the Spotlight Award Winners received, click here. 

The post And the Winners Are… appeared first on Expect More Arizona.

More About the Expect More Excellence Spotlight Award Winners In the News:

• Yuma Sun: Group awards Yuma finalists $1,000 each
• Nogales International: Mentoring program recognized by advocacy group
• Arizona Daily Star: Expect More Arizona honors 3 programs
• East Valley Tribune: Expect More Arizona honors Mesa’s Great Hearts Academy
• Arizona Republic: Mesa Prep parent school gains excellence honor
• Arizona Republic: Glendale district honored for its AP, honors curriculum
• Arizona Daily Sun: Expect More Arizona spotlights area schools, literacy project

More Expect More Excellence Tour Links:

• Excellence Tour Home Page
• Yuma Winners
• Tucson Winners
• Flagstaff Winners
• Phoenix Winners

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Did you know that the average child loses 2 and a half months of math skills during the summer months?  In addition, research show that that teachers typically spend 4-6 weeks re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer.

The long months of summer can offer the perfect opportunity for families to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the busy school year.  However, it’s also a good time for parents to find creative ways to keep their kids engaged and learning in order fight the summer brain drain.

Expect More Arizona encourages all parents to build a high expectations culture at home by making education a family priority.  Even during the summer months, there are ways that we can keep our kids engaged and focused on learning.  For example:

• Make a weekly grocery shopping list and have your child calculate how much the total bill will be and how much you can save by using coupons and store specials.
• Use mealtime to reinforce math skills – for example, you can have your child calculate the ingredients needed if you were to double a recipe or cut a recipe in half.
• Start a family book club – reading together can help build literacy skills as well as provide an opportunity to spend time together.
• Play games!  Even simple card games help build critical thinking and logic skills.

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Increasing the literacy skills of Arizona’s children is vital to meeting the complex demands of today’s 21^st century work and learning environments. High standards for reading and writing proficiencies are a necessity, and the implementation of Arizona’s Common Core Standards is an important and necessary step in raising expectations for our students. Literacy is infused throughout every category of the standards and is a common thread among the four key skills of a 21^st century student: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. Comprehension of a math word problem demonstrates key literacy skills, as does reading the instructions of a simple science experiment and predicting the outcome.  With the implementation of Arizona’s Common Core Standards, reading comprehension will be a key component throughout a student’s day, not just in a literacy block.

Taking effect in the 2013-2014 school year, Move On When Reading (ARS-15-701) also raises expectations for our students. It requires schools to retain third grade students who attain a “Falls Far Below” designation, the lowest reading level category, on the state reading test and who don’t qualify for an exemption. In all, more than 22,000 third grade students are potentially at risk for not being at grade level. The adoption of these more rigorous standards underscores our highest aspirations for our students and the extent of the challenge facing Arizona on the path to grade-level reading.

Every parent can play a vital role in developing their child’s literacy skills, and there are many ways to provide your child experiences that will set them up for success. One of the most important things a parent can give their child, in their earliest years, are words. Between the ages of one and three is the time of most rapid language and vocabulary acquisition. Reading is highly dependent on language ability, so children need to hear lots of words and have multiple opportunities to use them. Offer your child plenty of opportunities to talk and be listened to, to read and be read to, and to sing and be sung to. Do any or all of these things every day and you will be helping your child be on track for success in school and beyond.

Terri Clark is Arizona’s Literacy Director.

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It has been an amazing ride since January when we asked people throughout the state to submit their examples of excellence on our website.  We had nearly 200 submissions and invited people to view, vote and share the excellence.  We split the state up into 4 geographic areas with the goal of presenting Spotlight Awards in each area.

We have now made Excellence Tour stops in Yuma, Flagstaff, Tucson, and – last night – Phoenix. A local selection committee reviewed the submissions to identify those that most align with Expect More Arizona’s building blocks for a world-class education.  We presented the four identified by the committee with Excellence Tour Spotlight Awards. These are the final group of Spotlight Awards we have presented throughout the state. (Read about our Flagstaff, Tucson, & Yuma winners).

The video below provides a brief overview of each of the winners. You can read more about them below, and you can click their names to view their original submissions.

Metro Tech High School serves nearly 1,500 students in the urban core of Phoenix, and is part of the Phoenix Union High School District.  Metro Tech believes that every student can achieve at high levels, regardless of their background or zip code.  They currently have a 96% attendance rate, a 90% graduation rate and a drop out rate of less than 1%.  A Move On When Ready School of Excellence, their academics are aligned to the Common Core under the ACT QualityCore framework, they’ve received the Beat the Odds Gold Medal and have been cited in US News and World Report.  In addition to their focus on high achieving academics, Metro Tech also is committed to preparing students for careers and community life.   They build in activities and assessments that build career skills such as innovation, problem-solving, collaboration, creativity and effective communication.
(Pictured below from left to right: Pearl Chang Esau, President and CEO, Expect More Arizona; Kate McDonald, Principal, Metro Tech High School; Paul Luna, President and CEO, Helios Education Foundation and Chairman, Expect More Arizona Board of Directors.)

Great Hearts Academies is a network of academically rigorous, classical liberal arts primary, middle and high schools in the greater Phoenix area.  Its mission is to prepare students for success in the most highly selective colleges and universities in the nation.  Great Hearts currently operates sixteen academies throughout metropolitan Phoenix.  More than 95% of Great Hearts graduates immediately attend four-year colleges and universities.  The organization is committed to raising the academic standards for every Arizona student and has two schools that serve a primarily socio-economically disadvantaged student population.  United with student academic achievement, the ultimate goal of Great Hearts is to graduate “great-hearted” young men and women who possess a sense of destiny and purpose that is directed to the service of the greater good.
(Pictured below from left to right: Pearl Chang Esau, President and CEO, Expect More Arizona; Dan Scoggin, founding Chief Executive Officer, Great Hearts Academies; Paul Luna, President and CEO, Helios Education Foundation and Chairman, Expect More Arizona Board of Directors.)

The Be a Leader Foundation’s mission is to help underserved students become college bound and prepared to enroll in a post-secondary institution with the financial aid, motivation and preparation needed to obtain a college degree.   And, they are getting results.   Ninety-one percent of the Be a Leader Foundation’s class of 2012 entered into a postsecondary institution.  Every year, they host a walk through downtown Phoenix, Steps to College Success, which helps to create a college-going culture and mindset for all students.  They provide crucial outside of school support systems to students, often first-generation college going students, who rely on additional guidance and leadership development in order to attain a post-secondary education.
(Pictured below from left to right: Pearl Chang Esau, President and CEO, Expect More Arizona; Melissa Trujillo, President/CEO & Co-Founder, Be a Leader Foundation; Paul Luna, President and CEO, Helios Education Foundation and Chairman, Expect More Arizona Board of Directors.)

The Glendale Union High School District serves over 15,000 students in both the Phoenix and Glendale communities, and offers a rigorous curriculum with over 17 Advanced Placement courses.  All nine high schools are listed among Arizona’s Best High Schools according to US News and World Report.   They shine with their belief that all students can learn and they have recently been recognized nationally for having more students who have passed Advanced Placement exams than any other district in the country!
(Pictured below from left to right: Pearl Chang Esau, President and CEO, Expect More Arizona; Mr. Eugene Dudo, Superintendent, GUHSD; Patty Kennedy, GUHSD, Governing Board Member; Paul Luna, President and CEO, Helios Education Foundation and Chairman, Expect More Arizona Board of Directors.)

Congratulations to our Spotlight Award winners.  These three programs truly exemplify world-class education in the community.   Click on their names above to view their submissions, and visit the Expect More Excellence Tour to view other submissions from across the state.

As a statewide education advocacy organization, Expect More Arizona couldn’t do our work without the support and partnership of individuals and organizations around the state. We want to thank everyone on the Expect More Arizona Statewide Advisory Council for their support in launching the Tour and planning the events. We would also like to recognize the following people for serving on the Central Arizona Selection Committee who had the difficult task of narrowing down so many deserving examples of excellence to select our Spotlight Winners.

•  Dr. Kent Scribner, Superintendent, Phoenix Union High School District
• Lindsay DeFrancisco, Executive Director, Teach for America
• Maria Harper-Marinick, Ph.D., Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, Maricopa Community Colleges District
• Rhian Evans Allvin, Chief Executive Officer, First Things First
• Dave Howell, Regional Director, State Government Relations, Wells Fargo
• Edmundo Hidalgo, President and CEO, Chicanos Por La Causa
• Jaime Molera, President, State Board of Education

Thanks to everyone across Arizona for your participation in making the Expect More Excellence Tour a most humbling and inspiring journey!

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