Reach out this Summer!
Looking to get involved over the summer? All you have to do is reach out! We’ll be spending our summer with our members learning about what opportunities lie ahead to improve Arizona public schools. Want to learn with us? Great! We’ll be forming task force study groups on three topics:
- Education reform
- Finance reform
- English Language Learning
On May 20th we brought 63 of our members together to kick start out summer learning. Click here to read Acting Executive Director Megan Irwin’s call to action. Below you’ll find a scan of a story book page – fill it out and send it back to us to tell us what you hope to see in Arizona’s future.
An excellent teacher in every classroom, an excellent principal in every school
At Stand for Children, we believe that all children can learn and that all kids deserve access to the best possible public education regardless of zip code or economic status.
We believe great educational leaders have the power to close the achievement gap (and research from the last decade backs us up). Find out more here.
The first step toward figuring out where we have great teachers and principals – and where we have educators who need help – is to look closely at how much progress students make in a year. We don’t believe in looking at snap shot data, but we do believe that looking at academic growth over time tells us which students are learning, which students aren’t and which teachers need help.
This year, we championed and worked to pass Senate Bill 1040 to put in place an important building block to improve our public schools. SB1040 requires the State Board of Education to adopt an evaluation framework that incorporates data on student progress, trains teacher evaluators and ties professional development for teachers to outcomes in their classrooms.
This approach ensures that individual teachers and principals are evaluated using student progress as a measure, across the whole state for the first time.
SB1040 passed with broad bi-partisan support in both the house and the senate. Special thanks to Representatives Rich Crandall, Rae Waters, Eric Myer and Senator John Huppenthal for helping pass this bill with such broad support across party lines for kids.
Click here to read a great article in support of the legislation from Alhambra teacher and Stand for Children member Liz Boyd.
Great News from Arizona: Prop 100 Passed!
Arizona voters passed a 1-percent sales tax increase by 64% in favor on Tuesday, May 18th, bringing back $555 million in cut funds for public schools and preserving vital services for AZ kids. It’s an important psychological boost for the state and an important mandate on the value of public education to Arizona voters.
Stand staff mobilized enough volunteers to contact 20,000 voters on behalf of the yes campaign which resulted in astounding member volunteerism. Many of our member volunteers were never active in a political campaign before. Many cannot vote themselves. Many would never have had the chance to make their voices heard if not for getting involved.
Thank you staff and members for showing how the work we do each day is so important to children!
Where Arizona Stands
Arizona is Stand for Children’s newest state affiliate. For answers to some questions you may have about Stand for Children in Arizona, read our FAQs.
Arizona is at a crossroads. Just 71 % of Arizona students graduate high school on time – ranking us 44th out of 50 states in a nation that lags behind its economic competitors. On top of that, fewer than half of Arizona public high school graduates qualify academically to enroll in Arizona public universities – and only 27 percent of Arizonans hold a bachelor’s degree or higher at a time when most jobs require post-secondary education.
Arizona also compares poorly to other states on many measures of public education access, investment, and achievement, ranking near the bottom among the 50 states.
This is not the Arizona we want for our children. This is not the Arizona we need to succeed in the 21st century. Stand for Children is a non-partisan, child-focused organization here to support state and local education reforms and investments that help Arizona students graduate college ready.
Our mission is to enable Arizona parents, educators, and other concerned citizens to use the power of grassroots action to help Arizona children get the excellent education and strong support they need to thrive.
Click here to learn more about our efforts in Arizona.
Stand for Children’s Strategy
Stand for Children seeks to make children and their needs a higher political priority. Our members believe we need to invest in our children now — in their education and enrichment from pre-school through high school, their health, and their safety — to ensure they have a fair chance in life and to create a better future for our communities.
We build effective local and statewide networks of grassroots advocates capable of convincing elected officials to invest in and reform children’s programs. Following specific priorities chosen by our members, we focus on securing adequate funding for public schools and reforming education policies and practices to help children thrive academically, giving them the opportunities they need to become successful, productive adults.
Read about the success of our strategy in our other state affiliates.