Arizona Education Network

Anyone remotely involved in advocating for public education in this country has come across the Finland comparison. America’s public school system measures in the middle of the international pack in reading, math and science against Finland’s top-of-the-heap results. What are some of the differences? The US is busy trying to reform public education by introducing  Continue Reading >

All public kindergartens in the state are implementing the newly adopted Common Core Standards into their curriculum beginning this school year, resulting in a more rigorous academic program for the state’s youngest students. The Common Core Standards have been voluntarily adopted by 48 states in an effort to standardize the public education curriculum across the  Continue Reading >

A few schools across the state are implementing the Move On When Ready program approved by the Legislature last session. Under the program, high school sophomores take rigorous core subject exams and, in effect, test out of the remaining two years of high school.  Awarded the Grand Canyon diploma, these students can immediately go on  Continue Reading >

**Updated with vote detail on related bills below.** . After an all night session, the House passed a budget that cuts $183.2 million from K-12 and $270.8 million from universities and community colleges for a total of $454 million in cuts to education in Arizona. The budget was a compromise negotiated among Governor Brewer, the  Continue Reading >

Parents are being asked to provide an increasing amount of basic supplies to their children’s schools as Arizona students return to class.  As Alexis Huicochea reports in her article, Teachers Leaning on Parents for Supplies, (Sunday, August 14, 2011) some schools are starting the academic year with no budget for supplies.  These schools have asked  Continue Reading >

The Arizona Daily Star’s Josh Brodesky reports that Arizona’s divestiture in public education has occurred alongside the rising investment in an unlikely industry:  private prisons. (Private-prison expansion a crime, Sunday, August 14, 2011). As Brodesky puts it “education is a path to economic development and innovation.  But we are cutting it while funding hundreds of  Continue Reading >

Education Next, a journal reporting on school reform efforts, published its 5th Annual PEPG Survey—a snapshot of stakeholder opinion on issues related to public education. The survey indicates the current controversies over public education have not yet altered public opinion, but teachers’ views differ sharply from that of non-teacher respondents.   Click here to read  Continue Reading >