As Arizona Charter Schools Association nears its tenth anniversary of having a full-time team supporting Arizona’s growing, quality charter movement, we reflect back.
Charters have been “the hottest new concept in the world of education reform,” since the Arizona Republic first wrote about the fledgling charter movement in 1995. Rapid enrollment growth over the past 20 years has demonstrated the popularity of public charter schools when parents are given a choice in their children’s education. In Arizona, 180,000 students now attend one of 547 charter schools across the state.
The Association, which had existed since the opening of the first charter schools, reached a turning point when it hired Eileen Sigmund as president and CEO. The former journalist, litigator and lobbyist began to position the Association to expand its advocacy efforts and eventually provide a comprehensive array of services.
“Our first priority was to go around the state and find out what school leaders wanted out of the Association, to dive deep in an area of expertise we could provide to members,” said Association President and CEO Eileen Sigmund, who was hired in May of 2007.
At the time, only about 20 percent of the state’s charter schools were Association members, and the Association slowly began to grow as Sigmund hired an office manager, business manager and events coordinator.
Within the past 10 years, both the charter movement and the Association have grown exponentially.
Arizona charter performance has been impressive. With some of the highest ranked schools in the state and country, Arizona’s charter students routinely score higher than their peers on state and national assessment tests. For the last two years, charter students in our state outperformed the state average on the AzMERIT assessment. In fact, if Arizona charter students were separated and measured as their own state, it would rank among a handful of the top-performing states in the entire country on the Nations Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Meanwhile, the Association has grown to a staff of 21 people who provide a variety of services ranging from advocacy, public relations, business support and professional development. The Association boasts an 85 percent membership rate with its schools.
The organization has scored some huge advocacy wins at the state legislature in recent years to benefit charter schools including changes to zoning laws, impact fees, property taxes and the transferring of academic credits between charters and districts. Our partner organization, the Center for Student Achievement, has vastly expanded its professional development footprint throughout the state to include both charters and districts.
The Association reached its crowning achievement last year when it opened its new office and training facility in Phoenix. The organization is the only charter support group in the country to own a building.
The facility features the Training Center, a state-of-the-art and fully equipped meeting space that can host up to 70 people, as well as smaller conference rooms and a private courtyard.
With the state’s charter movement on the rise, the facility symbolizes the viability of the movement in every aspect from the academic success and recognition of charters, to the increased visibility at the legislature and in education policy discussions.
“It allows us to establish some permanency in the movement,” said Association Chief Operating Officer Rob Di Bacco, who was hired in 2010.
As the charter movement continues to grow, achieve academically and fight for a stable, predictable an adequate K-12 funding, the bond between the Association and its schools are closer than ever.
“As a membership organization, the Association exists to serve Arizona’s charter schools and students,” Di Bacco said. “Charters are here to stay and the Association now has a permanent home.”
