HORNE MEETS WITH PRINCIPALS OF HIGH-PERFORMING ARIZONA SCHOOLS

Horne meets with Principals of high-performing Arizona schools

Outreach will help inform state efforts toward school improvement

PHOENIX – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and department academic leadership met with nine school Principals from several regions of the state to learn more about how they have developed and maintained schools with high academic performance.

An essential function of the department is to partner with schools and districts on issues such as these that are a part of the formal school improvement process. Sessions such this help school improvement teams to be more effective in their efforts to improve underperforming schools.

Among the topics discussed were effective strategies for teaching core academic subjects such as reading, math and science, encouraging consistent student attendance, classroom management and discipline, preventing teacher burnout, creating a safe campus atmosphere and the importance of parental involvement.

These educators were selected for this roundtable because their schools have demonstrated long-term high achievement in student test scores. They represent schools that have consistently received an A grade on school report cards, or brought a school to an A or B from a D or F.

“We received consistent messages from successful Principals about the actions required to turn schools around, Horne said. “First, good discipline must be established so that students do not interfere with other students learning. Second, data must be used to determine what to focus on with each student. Third, teaching must be aligned to the state standards, because there are no questions on the test that do not reflect those standards. Other commonalities of successful schools were also discussed. This will help us do a better job of helping the schools that are not doing well to do a better job of educating our students.”

The participants were, Dr. Ryan LoMonaco – Desert Thunder School, Avondale, Amanda Mace – Mission Heights Prep, Casa Grande, Joshua Payne – Robert Bracker El, - Rio Rico, Christopher Loya – Marshall El, Tucson, Benjamin Marchant – Show Low High, Show Low, Hollis Merrill – Snowflake Dist., Snowflake, Stephanie Davis, El Mirage El, Phoenix , Stacy Brown – Western Peaks, Phoenix, Megan Brown – Buckeye El, Buckeye, and Tina Panagopolous – Stepping Stones Academy, Phoenix.

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