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Arizona's Education Standards


MJLO

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Arizona children, are not given the best prospects for the future. Especially when put up agains other states. I have only lived in AZ for a little under a year. I do however have brothers enrolled in Arizona high schools. I have to say, I was blown away at what I percieve as low education standards. I think I took for granted how much of a pain in the ass it was to attend a high school in Michigan, which has either the highest, or one of the highest standards for education in the country.

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I moved from Hawaii to Arizona in 1989 to start my sophomore year in high school. While in Hawaii I was getting a C average, in Arizona I was able to get a B average with less work. As a student, I loved it!

You can use NAEP's state assessment comparison tool here to compare the 50 states, District of Columbia and schools on military bases (DoDEA): http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/statecomp/

Some highlights from the 2005 results:

8th graders were #36 in the nation (out of 52) for math and #44 for reading.

4th graders were #48 for math and #48 for reading.

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Arizona was 49th in educational funding last year, just above Mississippi. It's not just the public schools either, but also the public universities. The tuition and class sizes at both ASU and UA are getting ridiculous.

Instead of being so insistent on funding more highways for Phoenix, I've never understand why the legislature refuses to throw more money at education. I heard a thing on NPR this morning from some education expert complaining about how they'd like to reform "No Child Left Behind" because, mainly, there was never any money allocated to support the program, so you get awful public schools like you have here.

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Ok I don't get it then, Otherstates are expanding infrastructure to meet needs, and have many more public universities, then Arizona. I am under the impression that budget shortfalls are not the problem of the state, especially with the ever expanding economy. It would be my assumption then, that other states with budget issues, just place a bigger emphasis on it. Even with the freeway expansions, I don't understand it.

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Here's a little Irony for you all. Ask and yee shall recieve. Hehehe, lets just pretend that the governor was reading Urbanplanet, and decided to focus in on education. Ok i'm done dreamin. It's the season of politics, and she has to give the state of the state address. We'll see if anything real comes of it.

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Judging by what I know from my bf and where I come from in the South, Arizona is not bad. However, they may need improvement in reading and comprehension.

I am concerned however with the small amount of public universities within the state. Correct me if I'm wrong, there's only ASU, NAU, and UofA.

Though I'm impressed by how expansive the community college system is, which can be beneficial for those only seeking skill/trade training, your avg. associate's degree, or just basic core classes for those not ready for BIG colleges.

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Janet is all about education and has never made that a secret. One of her campaign promises last year was improving the education system (people seem to be just now realizing how bad it is, or at least, are only now concerned with it). The low funding is a result of the legislature constantly fighting with her to keep their pork in the budget line items. She's made some impressive concessions and has earned a steady reputation as a non-partisan, but I think there's enough momentum this year to actually get something done in regards to education.

Maybe that's naively optimistic though.

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Oh, and we do only have three public state universities administered by our friends at the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR to friends and well-wishers). We also Arizona Western College in Yuma which also serves as an NAU campus and Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher (Safford). We also have the smaller Central Arizona College, which has several campuses and is really more of a glorified community college.

A year or so ago, ABOR recommended that at least two new public universities be opened. I found this really exciting because, as is obvious, only three is just not enough to serve a population the size of Arizona's. I haven't heard anything about this recently and can't find any information online. I remember that one was supposed to be in Yuma and another in Cochise County, both of which would probably be simple expansions of current facilities (AWC and UA South respectfully).

I think they need one in the northwestern part of the state. I mean, who wouldn't want to go to school in Kingman?

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I really think that's a tough call, the states population is so centered. If you take out Pima and Maricopa counties, you're pretty much left with a giant sandbox One million peole in 90k sq mi. I would think that both Maricopa and Pima counties should recieve the additional universities. Otherwise you have a university in the middle of nowhere. Although, when they do well, the tend to make the surrounding areas prosper

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It was just a joke, Matt. Kingman is just about the worst place in the state.

Oh wait, or is that Yuma? Speaking of which, I found a PDF with ABOR's plans I was thinking of. One was to be in Phoenix, probably "Central Arizona University" and using the current ASU West and former Grand Canyon University campus. The other was "Southern Arizona University" and was to be located in Yuma using AWC/NAU facilities.

Not the PDF, but that was last night and now it's the morning:

http://www.asu.edu/news/campus/univ_study_061404.htm

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I really think that's a tough call, the states population is so centered. If you take out Pima and Maricopa counties, you're pretty much left with a giant sandbox One million peole in 90k sq mi. I would think that both Maricopa and Pima counties should recieve the additional universities. Otherwise you have a university in the middle of nowhere. Although, when they do well, the tend to make the surrounding areas prosper
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It would probably be just like Mesa... (shiver)

Losing the ASU West campus would actually a bit of a blow to that university. A lot of West Valley and North Valley commuter students now use that to take classes. Parking's easier, it's more convenient, and it's better for the "continuing education" students, usually older adults who don't even want to deal with the college and large campus BS. Most large schools have this (UA has its UA South in Sierra Vista, and even my alma mater, University of Houston, has two satellite campuses), and I think it's beneficial for the university environment as a whole. CAU just doesn't ring out like ASU does.

Speaking of parking, there's also the newly opened UA College of Medicine (official title also has ASU in it, just for good measure) near Downtown Phoenix for which my department is administering the parking. And, with no Phoenix staff, people have been making field trips. Same thing for the network infrastructure though: our CCIT is also administering that. Seems a little ridiculous.

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The Mesan moderator agrees. I'm not going to go into one of my Mesa rants. It's the 38th largest city in the country according to estimates, but it has the testicular fortitude of nothing. What it does have is tons of potential, more progressive leadership, and a light rail line heading right for downtown in the next few years. I'd say Tempe easily. I know there are those of us who would argue Scottsdale. But in my opinion it's overpriced, overhyped, and is trying to give itself the reputation of being to good for the average person. But I've lived in exclusive communities accross the country. Wealthier, and meaner than Scottsdale, but without the benefit of nationally renowned resorts, they don't get as much publicity, and they also don't get over inflated as to how nice they really are. Tempe leadership however has taken great strides in protecting the cities, reputation, and atmosphere. Although It still has never been explained to me how making a developer shave thirty feet off of a building accomplishes this.

Now that i've taken five minutes to say nothing I realize this is an education thread, and with that said, I have no idea how the east valley cities compare to each other school system to school system.

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The States largest school districts, are seeing a decline in enrollment. I would do my normal article link, but all of the controls are different on the panel today and I don't have time to figure them out and i'm not sure that they all work. But Phoenix Scottsdale and Mesa, all saw declines in student population. Officials quote stiffer competition from charter schools.

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wow, more education news. This time on the community college level. Three Valley Colleges Under investigation for fraud.

quote

About $500,000 appears to be missing or misused, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. The allegations involve employees,

teachers and administrators.

Officers served warrants and seized college presidents' computer data at Mesa, Scottsdale

and Estrella Mountain community colleges. Searches also took place at the Maricopa Community

Colleges headquarters in Tempe.

wow this whole new board thing is going to take some getting used to for people who need idiot proof!

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