EDUCATION IN ARIZONA MAKES BABY STEPS
posted by Caitlin Wilenchik
Arizona has endured lots of beatings as a result of our poor educational rankings year after year, and Gov. Jan Brewer has devised a plan to change that.
The state's public universities rank relatively low on several scales for achievement, and it falls far below average for math and science in state education.
It all started with Arizona’s competing for President Obama’s Race to the Top program, in which Arizona received a Phase Three grant from the U.S. Department of Education, $25 million of the total $200 million available.
This Race to the Top program is also part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and even though Arizona did not win the total available funds, Brewer decided to continue with the same process developed by the grant.
Arizona’s Educational Reform Plan, developed by Brewer, will be carried out by the Arizona Ready Council, formerly the P-20 Council.
This council is led by Craig Barrett, who will be on Arizona Week, to discuss his plan as head of the council and unique outlook on what Arizona needs to improve education.
Barrett, former CEO/Chairman of Intel Corp., has been very invested in Arizona’s education. He is co-chair for Achieve Inc., which is a network of CEOs working to improve an understanding in science, technology, engineering and math.
He also is president and chairman of BASIS Schools Inc., a coalition of charter schools in Arizona.
The Arizona Ready Council hopes to increase the high school graduation rates, improve third-grade reading levels and double the number of baccalaureate degrees in Arizona, all by 2015.
Brewer appointed Barrett after he had harsh works for the state, saying he would never have allowed Intel Corp. to locate in Arizona at the beginning because of the state's low educational achievements.
Controversy may begin with the council’s plan to form a new test to replace the old AIMS tests. Barrett says he agrees with an aggressive approach and knows the failure rate this new test will give to students in 2015.
Arizona will be striving to reform education with much lower spending from the state.
Brewer signed off on a $150 million reduction in K-12 funding for the current fiscal year. She and Barrett said that money isn’t everything, and the cuts in educational funding may not prove to be detrimental. Barrett said his charter schools operate on less money than traditional public schools do.
Also on the show will be a parent and a teacher from the “Parents as Teachers” program in the Amphitheater School District in Tucson, to discuss the program.
Rounding out the program will be Arizona Education Association President Andrew Morrill, discussing the teacher viewpoint on reform. He is a former Marana schools teacher.
Watch Friday at 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD6.
