Our President and CEO Eileen Sigmund spoke to KJZZ Phoenix this week about developing proactive solutions for addressing public charter transparency while still ensuring the flexibility that’s paved the way for public charter school success. Sigmund covered charter financial accountability, the demand for school choice and charter school academic results.
By Jamar Younger
Kimberly and Al Bravo was searching for a school that could serve as a perfect match for their son, Isaac.
It was important for the family to find a school that would “fit my kid. I don’t want my kid to have to fit a school,” Kimberly Bravo said.
The family eventually chose Arizona Autism Charter School, a public charter school with elementary and middle school campuses in Central Phoenix.
The family recently sat down to discuss how the school has served their son and why it’s important to protect these education options for parents.
By Jamar Younger
Arizona’s public charter schools have made great strides in providing quality choices to the state’s families.
Our students have scored higher than their peers on state and national assessments for four straight years, while our schools continue to receive top ratings in the state’s A-F letter grade accountability system.
Enrollment has continued to grow, with schools serving an increasingly diverse array of students.
However, our work is not done. We need your help. Sign up today to join our Charter Champions Network and learn how you can help us keep the progress moving forward.
Phoenix (October 5, 2018) – Arizona issued its 2018 “A-F” letter grades for public schools – district and charter – today. Here’s what you need to know about these grades:
As summer draws to a close in Arizona — by definition, at least, if not by temperature — the Research Team at the Association looks back on some of their data work and the bountiful harvest of data visualizations the work yielded. If you spent any time this summer chillaxing by an ocean or exploring in the mountains, we are jealous. Also, you may have missed some pretty good data tools and impactful research. Here is summary of the basics to catch you up, along with hyperlinks to the relevant work.
Myth Buster Series on Student Migration — This three-part series presented new statewide data that shows that public charter schools do not “cream” the best students from districts, and alternative schools are not necessarily the last resort for students.
Quality Schools Landscape Analysis Tool — This dashboard puts 2018 A-F school ratings into the Quality Schools Framework and contextualizes the results with census family income data. All letter grade appeals have been reflected in this tool, as of January 17, 2019.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Dashboard — This visualization gives users a way to compare all statewide NAEP data for 4th and 8th grades in Reading and Mathematics for all states since the inception of statewide NAEP in the 1990s. Oh yeah, you can also compare the performance of public charter schools as a group for each state as well.
2015 to 2018 AzMERIT State Results and Disaggregation Dashboard — This dashboard reports all state-released information on AzMERIT from 2015 to 2018. Users can disaggregate data by subgroup, sector, grade, and geographical groups such as legislative districts and cities.
2015 to 2018 AzMERIT School-level Results Dashboard — A companion dashboard to the “State Results” Dashboard, this visualization allows users to drill into school-level AzMERIT data from 2015-2018. Find your school and track its results for the past four years.
2018 AzMERIT Pass Rates, Percentile Ranks, and State Ranks — If you are only interested in how your school did on the 2018 AzMERIT (rather than a more historical perspective), then this dashboard can help. Filter schools by city, National School Lunch Program participation, sector, and other characteristics. All schools are assigned a state rank and percentile rank based on 2018 performance.
As we settle into autumn, look for 1) updates to each of these tools, 2) future work on student mobility measures in Arizona, and 3) a 2018 letter grade accountability dashboard, along with other projects. Have an idea for a future analysis or visualization? Email kelly@azcharters.org.
