Introducing New Expect More Arizona President/CEO, Pearl Chang Esau
Expect More 
Arizona is pleased welcome Pearl Chang Esau as our new President and CEO. Pearl will be leading the organization as we continue to champion high expectations for Arizona education. Pearl has a long commitment to education and has dedicated her professional life to ensuring children and students get the quality education they need to be ready for college, career and life.
Prior to joining Expect More Arizona, Pearl was with Teach For America – Phoenix, where she served as Executive Director. Pearl started her career in 2003 as a Teach For America corps member in East Los Angeles where she led a group of 5th grade English Language Learners to progress 1.5 grade levels in one year. Her passion for quality education for all children is evident in everything she does and her expertise and passion will help Expect More Arizona as we continue to help make Arizona education the best in the nation.
Watch the video below to learn a little bit more about Pearl and her vision for the future of Expect More Arizona.
What Will Your Child Grow Up to Be? The Power of Parents in Ensuring Academic Success
There are many critical components to ensuring academic success for today’s students,
including high quality teachers, challenging curriculum and informative assessments, to name a few. However, none is more important or influential than parent support and involvement in their child’s academic activities. In fact, research shows that students with more actively engaged parents and families are more likely to attend school regularly, have better social skills, earn higher grades, graduate from high school and go on to college or other postsecondary program.
Expect More Arizona recognizes the critical role of parents and is unveiling a new campaign this month to encourage parents to increase their involvement in their child’s academic success. The campaign will also provide parents with information and resources to help ensure academic success at every stage of the education continuum – from birth through career.
Expect More Arizona is challenging more Arizona parents and families to create a high expectations culture in their home by:
- Making their student’s academic success a family priority. That means school comes before athletics, entertainment and work.
- Setting the completion of college or other postsecondary program as their student’s ultimate academic goal.
- Committing to be actively engaged in their child’s education every step of the way – from birth through postsecondary.
By engaging more parents and families in student academic success, Expect More Arizona seeks to raise expectations, and ultimately improve the preparedness of Arizona students for college and career. Parents and families are being provided with information, tools and resources to help them stay engaged and ensure their student is prepared every step of the way. Expect More Arizona’s parent and family engagement campaign includes:
- A multimedia public awareness campaign including television, radio, online and print advertising; Click here to view the campaign.
- Educational materials including a brochure relevant for all ages, grade-specific flyers, promotional items and informational presentations;
- Web-based resource center including Expect More Arizona’s high expectations principles, tools supporting student academic success and links to local and national resources; and
- Year-round email communication designed to keep parents and families informed, educated and engaged in their child’s education and what’s happening in education across the state.
Parent and family involvement is a critical component to improving the options and opportunities available to our students. Please visit ExpectMoreArizona.org for more parent resources and help spread the word by sharing it with your colleagues, neighbors, employees and friends.
Helios Education Foundation Invests $3 Million in Growth and Sustainability of Expect More Arizona
Fueling 
the growth and sustainability of Expect More Arizona, Helios Education Foundation has committed $3 million over the next four years to the statewide movement dedicated to making Arizona education the best in the nation. The new investment will be directed to advance Expect More Arizona’s efforts to engage more parents, families, students and voters in setting high expectations and championing high quality education for all children and students – from birth through career. It will also fund the building of infrastructure and capacity to ensure Expect More Arizona is able to influence positive change in education for generations to come.
“The board of Helios Education Foundation believes that Expect More Arizona’s long-term success in inspiring a high expectations culture is critical to our state’s ability to ensure all students receive the highest quality education, and graduate college and career ready,” commented Vince Roig, Chairman, Helios Education Foundation.
“As an inclusive and growing statewide movement that champions a strong birth to career education system, Expect More Arizona is uniquely positioned to shape and lead powerful change in education over the next few years.”
Newly Enhanced ExpectMoreArizona.org Provides Greater Opportunity to Do More For Education
Expect More Arizona has just launched a new version of our Web site, with increased functionality and opportunities for all Arizonans to get involved in making Arizona education the best in the nation. New features on the site include a dynamic homepage, integrating social media conversations; a parent-specific section with tools and resources for parents of children at every age of the continuum; a searchable database for volunteer opportunities throughout the state; and a College and Career Planning section to help students plan, prepare and succeed in postsecondary education. The Expect More Arizona Blog will also continue with increased opportunities for engaging in conversation around key education issues.
Our goal is to make ExpectMoreArizona.org your “go to” resource for current information about education issues and opportunities as well as ways to get involved in improving education in our state. So, visit our Web site often, read our blog and post your comments, share our content and join our conversations on Facebook and Twitter. Read our blog and post your comments, share our content and join our discussions on Facebook and Twitter. Also, let us know about education events and activities around the state that help Arizonans learn more, expect more, and do more for education and our students.
Click here to read more about the new features and functionality of ExpectMoreArizona.org.
Vote 4 Education: Bond Elections and Budget Overrides Provide Critical Funding for Arizona Schools
November 8 is an important date for education throughout our state. Many Arizona
communities will be electing a new mayor and city council members. In addition, school districts across Arizona will ask local residents to vote on bond and override issues. While they differ in how the funds can be spent, if approved, both bond elections and budget overrides add a nominal tax on residents in the affected region. However, many of this year’s bonds and overrides will extend one already in place, therefore having no new increased tax impact.
Bonds are used to repair aging facilities and build schools. A maintenance and operations override allows districts to exceed their state-approved budget by up to 15 percent and can be used only for programs, positions or utilities. A capital-outlay override can pay for items such as buses, computer systems, textbooks and classroom furniture.
Districts ask voters to approve overrides when their budgets exceed operating limits and vital repairs and/or programs are needed. With schools’ budgets reeling from several years of cuts, many are relying heavily on the chance local voters will approve the overrides to ensure class sizes do not expand out of control or that supplies for growing student populations remain intact.
Voters are asked to approve bonds when the districts need funding for capital needs, such as new facilities or building maintenance. Under state law, Arizonans can be asked to approve bonds to pay for the following:
- To locate or change the location of school buildings
- To purchase or sell school property and school sites consistent with Arizona law, and to build new school buildings
- To decide whether bonding should be issued and sold to raise money for purchase or lease school lots, to build or renovate school buildings, to supply schools with furniture, equipment and technology, to improve school grounds, to purchase transportation vehicles or for liquidating any indebtedness already incurred
- To lease out property owned by the school district for a minimum of five years
Those districts with override and bond issues on this year’s November ballot hope the passage of these measures will help them bridge the funding gaps for much-needed maintenance and operating costs.
When you visit the polls on November 8, remember to Vote 4 Education and vote in favor of bonds and overrides for districts in your area.
Grading Arizona: New School Ranking System Helps Parents Know How Their Students’ Schools are Performing
The Arizona Department of Education has released its new letter grading system for ranking schools in
an effort to hold them more accountable for student improvement. The state developed a new system for measuring academic achievement for schools that uses a different formula than it has under the original “legacy” labels, which included Underperforming, Performing, Performing Plus, Highly Performing and Excelling. These legacy labels will be phased out and replaced by an “A” through “F” score based on criteria that measures student academic growth.
Under the legacy labels, schools are rated mainly on the percentage of students who passed the Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) exam. Under the new letter grades system, half the rating will be based on the percentage of students improve their scores on AIMS, regardless of whether they pass the exam. The new formula puts more weight on how much students improve and less on their level of performance.
The change essentially means the state is redefining what makes a school outstanding. The goal is to motivate schools to push average and advanced students to improve and to recognize schools that help lagging students catch up. For example, a school that typically has been an Excelling school may end up with a “B” because that school did not show enough academic growth among its students. All schools will receive both a letter grade as well as the legacy label until 2013 when the legacy labels will be phased out.
“The new school rating system will give Arizona a better picture of how our student’s are truly performing. It takes into account not only the AIMS scores but also individual student level growth compared to a student’s academic peers over time,” said Rebecca Gau, Director of the Governor’s Office of Education Innovation who helped develop the new grading system. “This will also help our schools understand what they need to do to improve.”
A total of 1,501 schools were graded. Small schools (those with fewer than 125 students), schools with only kindergarten through second grade, and alternative schools did not get a letter grade this time. State officials are still devising a formula that can fairly measure academic growth in these schools.
Only half of Arizona’s 524 charter schools received letter grades. Many of those smaller schools that did not receive the letter grades this year will be phased in later. In addition, several charter schools are alternative schools designated by Arizona statutes to take students who are juvenile delinquents. They are held to different accountability standards.
The state’s new formula to determine if a school earns an A grade is not only tougher, but also very different than the one the state uses to determine if a school earns an “excelling” label.
In addition, to earn an A grade, a school’s students also must show average or above-average growth in AIMS scores when compared with students statewide who have a similar history of AIMS scores. The formula also gives the school more credit if this growth is among the school’s 25 percent lowest-performing students.
Click here to see what grade your school received under the new system.
Click here to view a video explaining the new rating system.
Quality Early Education Opportunities for Northeastern Arizona
Children in the rural counties of Navajo and Apache in northeastern Arizona now have
more access to quality early education and health services to ensure they are ready to enter school and be successful throughout the entire education continuum.
In the last four years, nearly $5 million has been invested in Apache and Navajo counties through First Things First. These funds have provided critical programs to these rural communities to help them ensure their children get the foundation they need to be successful beginning in the earliest years and throughout their education.
Just this past year, more than 900 parent kits with information about health and learning have been distributed to parents of newborns. More than 500 children have received early literacy screenings through Reach Out and Read and more than 300 parents have attended trainings on early childhood issues such as literacy.
Quality early education is more important now than ever before. Children who started kindergarten this year must be proficient at reading by third grade or they will not be able to move on to fourth grade. This new Arizona law, called Move On When Reading, is raising the standards for Arizona schools and students. Quality early education opportunities are critical to help ensure our students are reading at grade level by third grade.
Learn More
Workforce preparation is a critical component of Arizona’s education system. Occupation-specific postsecondary education opportunities offer students a pathway to career success as well as provide a skilled workforce for the Arizona workforce. In the 10 by 20 Pledge for America, there is a goal to grow America’s skilled labor workforce by 10 million before 2020. Click here to watch a video about the importance of career and technical education in ensuring our future economic stability.
Do More
On November 8, individuals across the state will head to the polls to vote for local mayors, city council members and in some school districts, bonds and overrides. If your community has an election next month, be sure to vote for candidates and policies that are supportive of education. Check with your county’s superintendent to get a list of districts that have bond or override elections on the November 8 ballot.
Expect More
Congratulations to Shaun Martin who was recently named Arizona’s Rural Teacher of the Year for 2011. Martin is a high school physical education teacher and coach at Chinle High School in Apache County. Through his teaching, he embraces tradition and passion, inspiring those around him. Mr. Martin, thank you for expecting more!
