YUHSD schools earns bronze in first year with Beat the Odds

Administrators from all six Yuma Union High School District schools received bronze Beat the Odds awards Monday from Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA) for their successes in implementing a new program on their campuses this year.

Principals and assistant principals from each high school have been attending training sessions to implement the Beat the Odds program, and principals are additionally being mentored at their school site in an effort to help improve student achievement.

“Beat the Odds is a rigorous, multiyear school improvement program based upon the Center for the Future of Arizona's nationally acclaimed ‘Beat the Odds' research study,” said the CFA. “The study found six elements that were associated with successful minority schools: a strong and steady principal, clear bottom line, ongoing assessment, collaboration, a program built on individual student needs, and a commitment to stay with successful instructional programs.”

Marjorie Kaplan, director of the Beat the Odds Institute, said YUHSD schools were only eligible for the bronze level award because this is their first year in the program.

She noted, however, that they qualified for the award because they met the requirements for demonstrating the six researched-based Beat the Odds leadership principles schoolwide and because they also received a “Performing” AZ Learns label from the Arizona Department of Education for the 2010-2011 school year.

“They are eligible for it if they're implementing the program faithfully and these people are,” Kaplan said about district staff. “They have a unique model and we really appreciate that the superintendent has been forward thinking enough to include not only the principals but all the administrators in the building to attend the group training sessions so it really affects the whole district.”

To be named a gold level Beat the Odds School in coming years, YUHSD will have to work to maintain scores in some areas and improve in other subject areas.

“The requirements get harder and harder,” Kaplan said. “After the first year then we start looking at how they do internally on school test scores and then after the third year they compare AIMS state scores.”

This year nine schools in Phoenix were given gold awards and named Beat the Odds schools; nine were given silver awards in Phoenix, Tucson and Marana; and 14 schools were given bronze awards in Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma, San Luis, Fountain Hills, Tempe and Pima.

To qualify for the program, K-12 Arizona schools should have predominantly low-income and/or high-minority student populations.

Visit www.BeatTheOddsInstitute.org or call the CFA at 1-602-496-1360 for more information about the program.

Sarah Womer can be reached at swomer@yumasun.com or 539-6858. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSSarahWomer or on Twitter at @YSSarahWomer.