Native American students across Arizona are achieving significant improvements in reading and math proficiency, driven by targeted school improvement strategies, according to State Superintendent Tom Horne.
Notably, three schools in the Chinle Unified School District are now surpassing state averages in both math and English, making a transformative shift in educational outcomes. They saw an increase from 20% proficiency in 2023 to 34% districtwide.
“When I took office in January 2023, I was informed that the average proficiency rate for Native American students was five percent,” said Superintendent Horne in a press conference. “This was very upsetting to me, as it would affect the students’ employment prospects and quality of life. I said that we would change everything we were doing in that respect and give total focus to increasing proficiency rates among Native American students. I met with tribal leaders who were shocked to learn about the five percent number and agreed with me that action had to be taken.”
Through collaboration between the Offices of Indian Education and School Improvement, schools have received extensive support, such as teacher training, on-site visits, and leadership guidance, to help them and their students succeed.
Horne added, “With outstanding leadership from leaders of Native American districts, and our help, the proficiency rates of Native American students have soared.”
Other districts in the state have also reported extraordinary progress. Ganado Unified School District saw a 159% growth in students testing proficient in math and English, while Red Mesa Unified School District achieved a growth of 149%.
Baboquivari Unified School District recorded a 197% increase, Kayenta Unified School District a 122% jump, Sacaton Elementary District a 124% increase, and Tuba City Unified School District a 113% improvement.
Chinle Unified School District Superintendent Quincy Natay credited the success to a collective effort. “We are extremely proud of the progress our students and teachers have made,” Natay said. “These gains are a direct result of our governing board’s support of our vision and strategic plan, dedication of our educators, the support of our parents and communities, and the hard work of our students. We remain committed to building on this momentum and ensuring that all our students, across every grade level, have the opportunities and education to improve their quality of life.”
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
A new report from the Common Sense Institute (CSI) revealed a crisis in Arizona’s district public school system, marked by declining enrollment, expanding infrastructure, and misallocated resources that fail to serve students effectively.
Despite a 5% drop in district school enrollment since 2019, Arizona’s public-school districts have continued to expand facilities, increase capital spending by 67% to $8.9 billion, and boost transportation costs by 11.3% to $561.2 million, even as eligible bus riders plummeted by 45%.
As Arizona’s population surged, districts expanded, constructing thousands of school buildings, hiring teachers, and extending bus routes to accommodate a growing student body.
Since peaking in 2008 with 931,000 students, district school enrollment has steadily declined, dropping to 859,519 students by 2024—a 5% decline since 2019 alone.
According to the report, this trend is accelerating, driven by demographic shifts and changing parental preferences.
Arizona’s school-aged population (ages 5–17) shrank for the first time in 2022, with a loss of 30,000 children by 2023.
Meanwhile, school choice has reshaped the educational landscape with 40% of incoming kindergarteners now opting for charter or private schools, which operate with leaner facilities and no formal transportation systems.
In the meantime, Arizona’s district schools have doubled down on expansion. Since 2019, districts added 499 new buildings, increasing gross square footage by 3% to 148.6 million square feet—78 million square feet more than needed, enough to accommodate 630,000 additional students.
The fastest-shrinking districts have increased capital spending the most, with 20% of districts (serving 73% of students) receiving 81% of capital funding.
Math proficiency in Arizona’s district schools fell 25% since 2019, and English proficiency dropped 5%, according to NAEP assessments.
Staffing has grown by 1.5% to 108,330 employees, with teacher salaries rising 24.1% to $65,113, yet class sizes remain stable at 17.7 students per teacher.
Administrative staffing has surged 6.7% since 2019, outpacing classroom staff growth, but these investments have not translated into academic gains.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The average eighth grader in Arizona has the lowest reading scores on record, and about the same mathematics scores as nearly 30 years ago.
The Nation’s Report Card (NCR) 2024 Reading State Snapshot Report showed that Arizona’s average scores for eighth grade students declined to 254, the lowest point on record over the past three decades.
Data reveals that gains made by fourth graders in math and reading in recent decades were undone or reduced in the last few years, and by the time the student hit the eighth grade they were at the same level or declining past historic average scoring across both math and reading.
Fourth graders improved their average reading scores slightly based on records dating back to 1998, matching the national trend of slight improvements to average reading scores before a steep decline the last few years. However, eighth graders have generally declined in their average reading scores based on records dating back to 1998, much aligned with the national trend of average scores.
For eighth grade reading, Arizona was lower than those in 18 states or jurisdictions, not significantly different from those in 28 states or jurisdictions, and higher than those in five states or jurisdictions.
NCR also found that black and Hispanic students in Arizona had average reading scores double digits lower than their white peers: 30 and 22 points, respectively. Neither of these disparities were determined to be “significantly different” from those retrieved nearly 30 years ago (21 and 25 points, respectively). Male Arizona students scored on average 11 points less than their female peers. Students identified as economically disadvantaged averaged 21 points lower in their scoring, again determined to be not statistically different from nearly 30 years ago (23 points).
Fourth graders improved in their average math scores based on records dating back to 2000, matching the national trend of improved average math scores. However, eighth graders declined their average math scores in recent years based on records dating back to 2000, matching the national trend of some improvements around the early 2010s before a steep decline in recent years.
For eighth grade math, Arizona’s average score was lower than those in 24 states or jurisdictions, higher than those in seven states or jurisdictions, and not significantly different from those in 20 states or jurisdictions.
NCR reported that black and Hispanic students in Arizona had average reading scores double digits lower than their white peers: both 32 points, respectively. Neither of these disparities were determined to be “significantly different” from those retrieved a little over 20 years ago (37 and 33 points, respectively). Male Arizona students scored on average six points higher than their female peers. Students identified as economically disadvantaged averaged 33 points lower in their scoring, again determined to be not statistically different from nearly 30 years ago (28 points).
The last science scores gathered date back to 2015, and the last writing scores date back to 2007.
Sandra Christensen, board member with the Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD), claimed the decline in scores was because districts weren’t prioritizing academic excellence or student safety.
“We can no longer afford to govern districts like we did 10 years ago. Our students deserve better!” said Christensen. “We MUST focus on academic excellence and student safety. As a constitutional republic, elected officials report to you! Wake up and stop electing ‘get along to go along’ politicians that don’t listen to your voice!”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
In the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD), about half of students preparing to move up into high school understand math.
Only 54 percent of eighth grade SUSD students met proficiency in math per standardized testing, yet the district has further divided precious classroom time into teaching concepts like gender identity and how to successfully disrupt fact-finding dialogue.
Organized SUSD parents, teachers, and community members critical of the district’s academic focus have questioned why their schools continue to branch out into new educational pursuits when the basics remain unmastered. Those parents have gone so far as to criticize the modern content as unacademic.
“Less than half of Scottsdale Unified 8th graders are proficient in math, yet the district continues to approve resources that divert class time away from academics,” stated Scottsdale Unites for Education Integrity (SUEI).
Less than half of Scottsdale Unified 8th graders are proficient in math, yet the district continues to approve resources that divert class time away from academics.
— Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity (@ScottsdaleUnite) March 25, 2024
However, SUSD touted their math proficiency percentage as a win during their board meeting last November, since it was technically higher than the 2022 national average of 26 percent and 2023 state average of 27 percent for eighth graders.
Math proficiency steadily declined from grade 3 onward, both in the district and statewide.
The contested concepts of gender identity and disruption of fact-finding dialogue occur within the permitted supplemental district curriculum for social studies (grades 3-12) and digital citizenship (grades K-12). Within these supplemental curriculums, teachers may choose from media literacy lessons on a wide variety of topics. Parents have challenged the necessity of these curriculums for delving into topics like hate speech, climate change, social justice, antiracism, Black Lives Matter, and transgenderism.
SUSD also requires high school students to learn media literacy as part of the “Digital Future” and “American and Arizona Government” courses.
The media literacy curriculum serves as the latest issue to emerge for SUSD community members.
Since increased parental and community scrutiny brought on by the pandemic, SUSD families have been sounding the alarm on their district’s trajectory. Their concerns have yielded various discoveries over the years, many of which have indicated a tendency for the district to keep parents in the dark on major developmental concerns, such as gender identity struggles, and a practice of encouraging minors to explore their gender identity through secretive gender transition plans and sexuality through outlets like GSA clubs.
Last month, SUSD was featured on Parents Defending Education’s list of schools with a gender support plan. SUSD’s gender support plan enables students to embark on a gender transition journey without the knowledge of their parents.
SUSD’s plan appeared to be nearly identical to a version published by Gender Spectrum, an organization advocating for transgenderism in minors. The organization hosted a controversial chat room promoted on the Arizona Department of Education website by former Superintendent Kathy Hoffman.
Gender Spectrum’s top sponsor is Pearson, one of the biggest providers of educational materials internationally.
Other Arizona districts listed by Parents Defending Education as having their own versions of gender support plans were Casa Grande Elementary School District, Creighton Elementary District, Ganado Unified School District, Kayenta Unified School District, Mesa Unified School District, Naco Elementary School District, Osborn Elementary School District, and Tucson Unified School District.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Democratic politicians and the liberal media made the first day of school all about welcoming migrant children. That’s sheer propaganda. Parents deserve the truth. The migrant surge is a disaster for their kids.
The surge will worsen our education system’s twin failures: plunging math and reading scores, and the failure to ensure newly arriving kids learn English so they can succeed, too.
Kimberly Carchipulla, who came from Ecuador and has been living at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan with her son, brought him to school on Thursday and said through a translator, “What I want for him is a future.”
That’s what all parents want. But when migrant children are added to the class, the rest of the kids get less of their teacher’s attention. A teacher will have to focus on the needy newcomers who speak no English and may not have been to school before. For the rest, it could be a year of lost opportunities.
Public school students’ reading and math scores have been falling for decades, hitting a new low this year, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. One reason is the soaring number of non-English-speaking students, up from only 9% of public school students in 1980 to nearly 25% now.
Until the 1960s, children arriving in this country were put in public school without interpreters and bilingual teachers. Children were taught in one language — English. No confusion. The current approach is a disaster for migrants and for the rest of the kids in class with them. The data don’t lie.
Now typically, a bilingual teacher and teaching assistants try to teach — math, science, art, any subject — in two or more languages, speaking English at times but also answering questions in Spanish and other languages. It’s chaos. Everyone learns less.
Jean Skorapa, superintendent for a rural school district in Maine, says the 67 migrant children enrolling in her district “are a tremendous, tremendous benefit”: “They make our community diverse and more well-rounded.” All true. But that’s happy talk.
What about the impact on learning? Geralde Gabeau, executive director of the Immigrant Family Services Institute in Massachusetts, explains that migrant children will be placed “in a first grade class with other students who already know their ABCs, who already know how to read, so those children are going to suffer.”
New York City has disastrously low reading scores. The influx of non-English-speaking students makes the challenge greater.
European countries are also grappling with waves of migrants. IZA, a European think tank, reports that “a high share of immigrant children in schools leads to lower test scores of native children.” Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development researchers report similar findings.
It’s not about race or ethnicity. It’s about too many languages spoken in the classroom.
Politicians would rather pander than address it. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont says, “From the bottom of my heart, I want to make sure this is the most welcoming state in the country.” Yet state education statistics show that the more “high-needs” kids in the class, including non-English-speaking students, the lower the reading and math scores for the others.
The current system is lose-lose, hurting migrant kids as well. They’re given too many opportunities not to learn English. Lamont, for example, is expanding translation services for parents and interpreters for students. That’s misguided. Families need to be prodded to learn English, not linger in a language ghetto.
Some school districts in New York state are experimenting with temporarily schooling newcomers separately, offering them months of intensive language preparation to succeed as English-speaking students. Good idea.
But the United Nations insists children have a “right” to be educated in their native language. Nonsense. It dooms them to low-paying jobs.
The vast majority of non-English-speaking students — 97% according to one report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform — lack English proficiency when they graduate from U.S. high schools. That’s the definition of failure.
Last week, mothers gathered outside Park Avenue elementary school in Port Chester, New York, to pick up their kids. Few spoke English. Some mothers had attended the same school decades earlier. Yet they can’t speak English. Tragic.
Tell the pols to stop romanticizing this lose-lose disaster and start fixing it.
Betsy McCaughey is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
