Public schools improve state profile

The new AZ Learns statistics are out, and Yuma students are improving - especially in math.

AZ Learns, a state public assessment tool, includes the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) scores as well as graduation, dropout and improvement rates, said Toni Badone, superintendent of Yuma Union High School District.

What is significant is that in 2007, all of YUHSD's partner districts, the elementary feeder schools, were below 60 percent passing in math. But by 2009, when those students were in 10th grade, just over 60 percent passed math, Badone said.

"This is a credit to the students who take the test seriously and to the math faculty because we never hit 60 percent before. We're going to be known as the community of great mathematicians."

YUHSD's district average for reading showed 63 percent passing, an improvement of two percentage points over last year. In writing it was 61 percent, an improvement of 7 percentage points from 2008.

"The big story is getting to 60 percent in math. There used to be a big gap between our math and reading scores, but now our students are expected to be as good in math as writing," Badone said.

For YUHSD, all schools were rated as performing except for Gila Ridge High School, which was named performing plus. But the categories are based on a complicated formula that does not indicate all contributing factors, Badone noted.

Excelling is the highest category, followed by highly performing, performing plus, performing, underperforming and failing.

At Yuma Elementary School District 1, all schools made the performing category or better and the administration was "delighted" with the results, said Darwin Stiffler, superintendent.

"We couldn't be happier with the efforts of the staff and students."

District 1 schools doing better than performing included Alice Byrne at highly performing, while Carver, Gwyneth Ham, Price and Otondo were all named performing plus.

The Crane School District had two schools at highly performing - Ronald Reagan and Mesquite - while seven schools were at performing plus. No schools in Crane were underperforming.

Last year, Centennial Middle School was underperforming but has improved to performing, said Janet Shields, director of curriculum and professional development. She said that all Crane schools showed substantial improvement for this year.

"I believe we have teachers in class that focus on the ability of every child. And now we want to make sure every child has equal opportunity to advance. Therefore, we have given a great deal of emphasis to mapping curriculum and providing quality assessments."

In Arizona, AZ Learns shows more schools now achieving the top category, according the state Department of Education.

"We have a record number of schools excelling this year, going from 17 percent in 2008 to 21 percent in 2009," said Arizona Superintendent of Schools Tom Horne in a news release.

The other categories in descending order are:
  • Highly performing, which stayed the same at 13 percent this year
  • Performing plus, which increased to 32 percent from 21 percent last year
  • Performing, which went to 30 percent from 39 percent from a year before
  • Underperforming, which went to 3 percent from 8 percent the year before, and
  • Failing, which stayed the same at 1 percent.

In the two prior years, Arizona schools remained statistically consistent in their performance on AZ Learns, Horne noted. Yet the AZ Learns accountability system is the best way to measure a school's performance from year to year, he added.

In a previous story in the Yuma Sun, Horne said the Arizona system is far superior to the federal No Child Left Behind profile. NCLB has 253 categories to evaluate standards and if a school performs spectacularly on 252 but fails one, then the whole school fails. By contrast, the state system is a comprehensive and accurate assessment tool.

Horne said that those seeking to attract business to Arizona can point to the 542 highly performing and excelling schools across the state, which shows they can compete in national tests with any other state where a business may consider relocating.