A day after a judge ruled that a state law barring Arizona schools from requiring masks can’t be enforced until September, Gov. Ducey said school districts enacting temporary mask mandates won’t receive some federal COVID-19 relief money unless they call off those plans.... Read more»
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"Physically reopening school sites on August 17 will have devastating consequences. It is essential that Arizona waive the requirement for students to be physically present in order to broaden options that ensure the safety of our community."... Read more»
Arizona schools started this academic year with 21% of all teaching positions vacant, and nearly half of the teachers who were on the payroll did not meet the state’s certification standards.... Read more»
Arizona has had a difficult history with providing adequate education for English learners, including a lawsuit against the state in 1992, a ballot measure in 2000, and what experts call a failed four-hour 'block' requirement.... Read more»
The Arizona Department of Education was alerted in March 2015 that it was improperly distributing federal funds intended to help low-income students, but didn’t undertake serious efforts to identify and fix the problem until early 2017.... Read more»
Seventy-three schools are appealing the letter grades they’ve been given by Arizona school officials, citing a variety of reasons why their ratings should be improved. Amphi's CDO and Helen Keeling appealed, as did Sonoran Science Academy.... Read more»
After refusing to release school letter grade records distributed to Arizona public schools and claiming that no list of all scores existed, the Department of Education has reversed course and released the records to media outlets who sought them.... Read more»3
The Arizona Department of Education physically pushed an AZCIR reporter out of its Capitol Mall offices Thursday in response to a request to inspect the latest school letter grade records. The agency’s security guard told AZCIR’s reporter he was trespassing and pushed him out of the public building.... Read more»
Less than 10 percent of students at 174 rural charter and public schools passed the math section of the AzMERIT test last year, according to the Arizona Department of Education.... Read more»
For the past decade, the vast majority of Arizona counties have faced a teacher shortage at the beginning of the school year, and as school districts head into the summer many teachers expect more of the same. And they’re not surprised.... Read more»1
Are Arizona students prepared for college? Recent data indicates they're not. Students here lag the national average in all categories: English, reading, math and science. Only 23 percent of Arizona students meet the benchmarks in all four subjects.... Read more»
Charles Heller embraces Donald Trump’s proposal to eliminate gun-free zones on school campuses, a move he sees as “really restoring a freedom, not eliminating anything.” But the Tucson resident acknowledges that legal and political realities will likely keep Arizona schools gun-free for the foreseeable future.... Read more»
Two decades after Arizona helped pioneer the charter school movement, enrollment data show the schools don’t match the school age demographics of the state and, in many cases, their neighborhoods. White - and especially Asian - students attend charter schools at a higher rate than Hispanics, who now make up the the greatest portion of Arizona’s school age population.... Read more»
Arizona student test scores stayed level from 2013 to 2015 while scores nationally declined slightly, but the state’s marginal gains were not enough to lift it out of the bottom ranks on a new national report card.... Read more»1
The Arizona State Board of Education is suing Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas for refusing board investigators remote access to documents involving teacher misconduct.... Read more»
Despite the threat of lawsuits from the Arizona State Board of Education, Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas insisted Thursday that she and the board are maintaining a professional working relationship.... Read more»
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