CLICHÉ DRIVES EDUCATIONAL THINKING IN AZ

posted by Michael Chihak

Doing more with less.

That worn-out cliché is the new mantra in American society, whether in our households, businesses or governmental agencies.

There are exceptions, of course: Hedge-fund managers, wall street brokers and big bankers still do more with more because they're gambling with other people's money. But that's a topic for another day.

For most of us, austerity is the byword. It's especially evident with the start of a new school year and more new approaches in Arizona to public education.

Specifically, doing more with less. Consider that state government is providing less money per student in Arizona than it has in more than a decade while at the same time pushing greater requirements on schools along with ideas to reshape and reform public education.

Few would argue that the educational system doesn't need improvement, even wholesale reform in many aspects.

Yet we must ask if the fiscal moves will reverse our societal philosophy of more than a century’s standing that we invest in public education as part and parcel of our national fabric. Public education has claimed a high place in society and has been a key driver of economic improvement at nearly all levels.

Now come new ideas: Do more with less; do more individually and not collectively; do for yourself and let others do for themselves.

These shifts in thinking are having an impact on American society and specifically on public education.

Political leaders in Arizona are espousing ideas that would fundamentally alter the public education system by spending less and less on it, by letting individuals decide how the money for their children's education should be spent and, basically, by moving toward privatization.

Is it the right or wrong direction? That doesn’t matter, because it is the direction Arizona is headed.

Whether you agree with that move or want a public education system that stays public, you need to get in on the conversation.

NEW SCHOOL YEAR: NEW AND OLD CHALLENGES

posted by Michael Chihak

Nearly 1.1 million young people, literally, started school in K-12 in Arizona in the last two weeks. Arizona Week on Friday will look at the opportunities and challenges that the new academic year brings from the perspective of administrators and principals.

We will look at academic standards and how they are changing, how students and teachers are rising to the challenge of meeting the standards and how state budget cuts may be hampering those efforts.

We also will explore the impact of charter schools on state education, how schools are faring with the AIMS test and specifically how math proficiency can be improved. Four in 10 Arizona students didn't pass the AIMS math test last school year.

On the interview list so far:

• Gabriel Trujillo, principal of Trevor Browne High School, and Kate McDonald, principal of Metro Tech High School, both in Phoenix.

• Nicholas I. Clement, superintendent of the Flowing ells School District, in Tucson.

• Paul Felix, principal of Nosotros Academy charter school in Tucson.

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR 2011-12 SCHOOL YEAR?

posted by Michael Chihak

It's still summer, but school is under way throughout Arizona, and for this week's program, we will explore the issues around efforts to improve public education.

We plan to interview state officials and those at the local level to get a gauge on expectations for the new school year, in which the state's public schools will be operating with the lowest state funding level in 11 years.

We will look at AIMS testing, which showed in the 2010-11 school year that students are generally improving in reading and math but getting worse in writing. The state Department of Education attributes the writing scores changes to introduction of tougher standards last year.

We will ask what efforts are being made to reduce the dropout rates, especially among minorities and low-income students and what results are being recorded.

We will look at teachers to see how their efforts are being supported and if they are meeting stricter standards.

All coming for Friday. Watch this space for more details.

NAVAJOS' DILEMMA: GO HOME OR GO TO WORK

posted by Michael Chihak

It's the Native American dilemma.

Arizona's reservation lands are among the most economically deprived places in the state. And that takes into consideration the economic value, including jobs, that casinos bring to Native American lands.

But little else is available in their homelands for educated Native Americans, so may of them depart the reservation to seek work. And those who depart for educational reasons are less and less likely to return home.

Many want to, with strong cultural and familial ties constantly tugging at them.

Yet, the job opportunities simply don't exist. Take the Navajo Nation, for example. Navajo tribal rolls show just more than 300,000 members. Until just a few years ago, half or more lived on the vast reservation. Today, Navajo Times Editor Duane Beyal says, it likely isn't even half.

Karen Francis-Begay, special adviser to the University of Arizona president for Native American affairs, says in an interview for Friday's Arizona Week that Native American students not going back home after getting their degrees is understandable.

"A lot of them end up in survival mode," Francis-Begay says. "They have to pay loans and have a means of survival. So often times, almost readily, the job market that is available to them is away from home and is off the reservation."

She says she herself is an example of that phenomenon, having grown up on the reservation but leaving to go to college. That left her with ongoing guilt and doubts about her decision, Francis-Begay says.

"Myself, for some time, often questioned why it was that I didn't go back and work in my community," she says. "But a tribal elder had told me, you're making such an important contribution in helping our young people."

Hear more from Francis-Begay, Beyal and from Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly tonight on Arizona Week, at 8:30 MST on PBS-HD-6 or online at azweek.com.

AMERICAN SELF-DETERMINATION EVIDENT ON NAVAJO NATION

posted by Michael Chihak

As Americans, we pride ourselves on our spirit of self-determination. We often attribute that spirit to the inheritance of our forebears, whether they were of European stock or of the many generations that inculcated a uniquely American culture in us.

A recent reporting trip to Northern Arizona showed me another source for this spirit – the first Americans. I saw it at Window Rock, capital of the Navajo Nation.

Thousands of years of self-determination by America’s native peoples was stifled by European immigrants settling the country, often using force as an expression of their own self-determination. In the face of it, the Navajos still manifest the spirit in working to modernize their society.

Evidence came from Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, who said that economic development and jobs for the reservation will make the Navajos independent of the federal government, a worthwhile cause by any measure.

Shelly pointed to what he called “western” education for young Navajos as the key. At the same time, he cautioned his people to retain their culture and traditions, a great measure of self-determination in and of itself.

Just before my interview with Shelly, a Navajo couple displayed a clear example of that spirit. The two were selling jewelry on the edge of the plaza honoring Navajo Code Talkers and other war heroes.

They sat in their van making the jewelry, and the man told me he and his wife were there because they couldn’t find work nearby in the fields for which they are trained – he a heavy-equipment operator, she a dialysis technician.

There was no self-pity in his tone, only a straight-forward and factual assertion that this was how they were making a living.

He showed a true spirit of self-determination, one engendered by his ancestors many millennia ago but still carried today on the wind.

NAVAJO PRESIDENT WORKS JOBS PLAN

posted by Michael Chihak

Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly has a clear and concise understanding of the economic development and workforce issues facing his administration and his people.

In office just seven months, Shelly is rolling out an economic development plan pegged to the Navajos' vast energy resources, including alternative energies such as solar and wind, to the introduction of high technology on the sprawling rural reservation and on trade within and outside the United States.

Shelly detailed the issues and the opportunities for Arizona Week in an interview recently just outside the Navajo Nation's administrative offices in Window Rock.

As he spoke, a Navajo couple stood nearby making and selling native jewelry. The man said he and his wife were pressed into jewelry making because they can't find work on the reservation. He said he is trained as a heavy-equipment operator, his wife as a dialysis technician.

The interview with Shelly and analysis of the economic plight of the Navajos and other Native Americans will be the focus of Friday's Arizona Week.