Accountability aims to measure the growth in quality of Arizona schools and districts by producing timely and reliable accountability determinations as required by state and federal law. We work closely with Assessments, the State Board of Education, and Research in order to accurately label schools in a fair and systematic manner. The Accountability staff supports schools, districts, and other stakeholders to refine the system as well as utilize data in an appropriate and effective manner.

Accountability Research conducts research and program evaluation on pertinent issues and programs related to education for the state of Arizona. This involves conducting empirical and qualitative research for various divisions both within and outside of the Agency.

Our goal is to foster ongoing working relationships within the Arizona Department of Education as well as the community at large. We serve the public education system throughout Arizona by providing empirical and qualitative research and the application of quality program evaluation while advancing community understanding of the relevance of research.

COVID ADDENDUM (WAIVER) APPROVED

Arizona’s February 4, 2022, request to the U.S. Department of Education to amend its approved consolidated State plan under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), using the COVID-19 State Plan Addendum has been approved.

Arizona requested these amendments to account for short-term changes to its system of annual meaningful differentiation for school year 2021-2022 due to extraordinary circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic and in response to the waivers the Department granted Arizona from the accountability requirements of the ESEA for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years and the assessment requirements for the 2019-2020 school year.

Specifically, Arizona’s approved one-time amendments are:

· Shift forward long-term goals for academic achievement, graduation rate, and progress in achieving English language proficiency by two years.

· For K-8 schools, increase the weight of the Other Academic indicator for elementary and secondary schools that are not high schools (student growth) and correspondingly decrease the weight of the School Quality or Student Success indicator (chronic absenteeism).

o Growth 28%

o Chronic absenteeism 2%

· For school serving students in grades 8-12, eliminate chronic absenteeism as a School Quality or Student Success indicator and use only dropout rates.

o No chronic absenteeism-total points available 95 points

· Identify schools for targeted support and improvement due to consistently underperforming subgroups (TSI) using the most recently available three school years of data.

· Omit the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years when determining whether a school has met the statewide exit criteria for comprehensive support and improvement (CSI) and additional targeted support and improvement (ATSI) schools.

o CSI must exit based on SY22-23 data-More rigorous Options will apply in SY23-24

o ATSI Schools must exit based on SY23-24 data or become CSI in SY24-25

· For CSI and ATSI schools identified in fall 2022, revise the exit criteria for fall 2023 only. In order to exit, a school have must: 1) increase academic achievement for a minimum of one year (rather than for two consecutive years, as previously required); 2) no longer meet the identification criteria; and (3) implement school improvement goals, strategies, and action steps in the State-required Integrated Action Plan.