Arizona Department of
Education
Strategic Plan
FY 2012-2013

(Rev 08/16/2012)

2012—2013 Strategic Planning

ADE Mission
To serve Arizona’s education community, ensuring every student has access to an
excellent education

Values
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Integrity: honesty, transparency, highly ethical behavior
Respect: be courteous and considerate, value others
Help each other succeed: collaborate, support others, inspire
accomplishment
Dedication to excellence: high standards, high expectations, great results
Efficiency: minimize waste of time, effort and resources
Continuous improvement: always learn, always innovate, always improve
Customer focused: understand needs, deliver quality service, exceed
expectations
Effective communication: share information, actively listen, ensure
understanding

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2012—2013 Strategic Planning
ADE Goals and
2012-2013 Objectives, Progress Indicators and Initiatives

Goal: Increase Student Achievement (K-12)
Education Progress Indicators
1. Increase levels of achievement of all students. (Roberta Alley, Karen Butterfield, Kathy
Hrabluk, Marv Lamer, Carrie Giovannone)

Objective: Achieve at least 80% of the following targets:
a. NAEP scores
b. State-wide Assessments:
AIMS
Stanford 10
CTE
AZELLA
GED
AIMS A
TABE
TABE Class E
Early Childhood Education—Kindergarten readiness
c. Graduation rates
d. Number of schools determined to be failing under A-F growth model (indicator)
e. Number of “A” schools(indicator)
f. Parent, student and teacher ratings of excellence
g. Percent of highly effective teachers and principals shown through evaluations
h. Percent of adult education students achieving their educational goals

Objectives:
1. Achieve at least 78% of 3rd grade students meeting/exceeding Arizona Standards for
Reading by June 30, 2013 (75.6% in 2011). (Kathy Hrabluk)
2. Achieve at least 13% of 3rd grade students exceeding Arizona Standards for Reading by
June 30, 2013. (Kathy Hrabluk)
3. From among LEA/Districts who offer CTE programs, increase the percentage of
LEA/Districts that articulate any CTE program and grant academic credit to meet a
graduation requirement, from 20% to 25%, by June 30, 2013. (Marv Lamer)
4. Increase the percentage of graduates determined to be college and career ready from 7% to
8% by June 30, 2013 (i.e., scoring 21 or higher on ACT Reading [AIMS Reading 747 score]; and 22
or higher on ACT Math [AIMS Mathematics 569 score]). Of the students receiving these ACT scores
at the end of their Freshman year, 75% are likely to receive a C or higher and 50% are likely to
receive a B or higher.) (Carrie Giovannone)1

a. Increase the percentage of Arizona 4-year graduates who took the SAT and plan to
attend a college from 70% to 71% by June 30, 2013.

1

Philosophically, the ADE agrees with the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in defining how
graduates are determined to be college and career ready which is the number of students who graduate from high school
within 4 years (based on the public HS graduation rates), the number who go directly to college (based on the college
going rates of recent HS graduates), the number who return for their second year of college (based on the first-year
retention rates), and the number who graduate from college within 150% of program time (based on the graduation
rates). Note: 150% of program time is defined by completing up to three years of college attendance to obtain an
Associate’s degree and up to six years to obtain a Bachelor’s degree.

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2012—2013 Strategic Planning
b. Increase the percentage of students going on to post-secondary education without
need for remediation by June 30, 2013.
c. Increase the percentage of students persisting past Freshman year in college from
71% to 73% by June 30, 2013.
d. Increase the percent of students graduating from a program within 150% of time (six
years for a Bachelor’s degree, three years for an Associate degree) from 50.1% to
51% by June 30, 2013.

Goal: Strengthen Customer Relationships
Objectives:
1. Increase net top box rating on overall satisfaction with ADE services from 1.2% to 10% by
June 30, 2013.
2. Increase customer satisfaction ratings in at least 50% of ADE Programs/service providers:
a. Increase the percentage of external service providers receiving a 4.0 or higher on
customer satisfaction from 51% to 55% by June 30, 2013.
b. Increase the percentage of internal service providers receiving a 4.0 or higher on
customer satisfaction from 12.5% to 25% by June 30, 2013.
c. Achieve at least 80% of monthly performance measures.
3. By June 15, 2013, at least 60% of ADE’s ACCS-related training sessions will use the ACCSPD Framework, as measured by 20 observations, with observation tool developed by
January, 2013. (Karen Butterfield Donna Campbell)

Goal: Enhance Process Efficiency and Effectiveness
Objectives:
1. Increase efficiency and effectiveness of at least six (6) ADE processes and systems by June
30, 2013.
a. Develop and implement new grants management system by June 30, 2013. (Todd
Mason)
b. Implement new automated certification system and have operational by March 31,
2013. (Jan Pentek)
c. Implement new agency and student technologies to support the Arizona Department
of Education initiatives and strategic objectives. All programs will be delivered within
+/- 10% of baseline schedule and budget. (Mark Masterson)
i.

ii.
iii.
iv.

Rev 081612

Move Free-throws software prototype from the IDEAL platform, stabilize solution on
Microsoft Technologies platform allowing deployment in Pilot schools by August 15,
2012
Build and deploy Free-Throws V1.0 to pilot schools by August 1, 2013 allowing
scalability for a State-Wide rollout for FY14.
Complete statewide Student/Teacher/Course connection by December 31, 2012
using vendor solution
Build requirements, solicit RFP, select vendor for SAIS replacement Phase 1
(Student Detail Integrity), and Phase 2 (Student Calculations) and deploy to 6-10 preselected pilots locations by May 1, 2013 allowing baseline testing for statewide rollout
through 2014.

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2012—2013 Strategic Planning
v.

Build and Deploy ED-FI SLDS solution for 6-10 pilot locations by June 30, 2013.
Allowing baseline testing and development of rollout plan statewide for FY 2014.
vi.
Define, build requirements and deploy Instructional Improvement System (IIS) to
replace IDEAL and support Common Core and PARCC implementations by July 1,
2014
vii.
Define and deploy base CRM solution using event management as initial pilot to
support agency overall data simplification effort by April 1, 2013.
d. Resolve at least 90% of federal audit findings within six months of receipt of federal

audit report. (Art Heikkila, Ross Begnoche)
e. By June 30, 2013, complete process improvement projects to improve service
delivery for: grants monitoring (Todd Mason); 915s processing (Lyle Friesen);
proactive, facilitated IEP (Kacey Gregson); and others as determined by Divisions.

Goal: Build a Great Place to Work
Great Place to Work Indicators (Billie Belanger)
1.
2.
3.
4.

Absenteeism due to illness rates
Turnover rates
Exit interviews
Number of grievances filed

Objectives:
1. By June 30, 2013, achieve gains in all of the four designated areas measuring progress
toward building “a great place to work”.
a. By March 1, 2013, increase to at least 20% the net top box percentage of staff rating
ADE as an outstanding place to work.
i.

Conduct interim measure by August 31, 2012.

b. By July 1, 2012, launch Leadership Development process to improve the quality of
management and leadership as demonstrated by employee survey ratings for each
management level. (Pat Childress)
i.

By August 31, 2012, establish baseline for employee rating on quality of
management and leadership.

c. Increase employee satisfaction ratings on effectiveness of ADE communication from
3.47 to 3.65 by March 1, 2013.
d. By March 1, 2013, increase employee ratings on Supportive Work Environment:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

from
from
from
from

3.95 to 4.10 on supervisor “support”
3.86 to 4.00 on manager “support”
3.74 to 3.90 on senior management “support”
3.69 to 3.85 on “recognition”

2012-2013 Initiatives
1. Develop and pilot transformative school models to achieve breakthrough gains in student
achievement. (Annie Gilbert)
a. Develop language arts FreeThrows by June 30, 2013.
b. Rewrite math FreeThrows (independent of IDEAL platform) by December 1, 2012.
c. Develop math FreeThrows through algebra II by June 30, 2013.

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2012—2013 Strategic Planning

2.
3.

4.
5.

d. Stabilize math FreeThrows pilots and obtain commitments to expand into 20
additional schools by January 15, 2013.
e. Create transformative models (blended learning approach) using best practices, and
pilot model(s) in at least two schools by June 30, 2013.
f. Evaluate Math FreeThrows in Fall 2012 to measure academic outcomes and student
engagement.
Fully implement the new AZELLA test by late January/early February 2013, so that results
will be available by June 30, 2013. (Roberta Alley, Marlene Johnston)
Roll out the college and career ready standards for all grades by June 30, 2013. (Kathy
Hrabluk, Sarah Galetti)
a. By June 30, 2013, 70% of teachers have received training on Arizona’s Common
Core Standards.
b. By June 30,2013, 50% of teachers report teaching Arizona’s Common Core
Standards
c. By January 30, 2013, determine recommendations regarding impact of PARCC
assessment on high school graduation requirements.
Complete the student/teacher/course connection for at least 95% of schools by December
31, 2012. (Peter Laing, David Dulis/IT)
Roll out the teacher principal evaluation model by September 30, 2012. (Karen Butterfield,
Carrie Giovannone)
a. Pilot a teacher and principal evaluation model in at least 4 LEAs that is
representative of the State Board of Education’s adopted framework, beginning in
September, 2012, and completed no later than February 1, 2013.
i. The model will include:
1. teacher, parent and student surveys
2. teacher peer review process
3. required classroom observations
4. student achievement criteria
ii. Pilot will be evaluated by WestEd’s Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)
1. Received from the field prior to start of the pilot
2. Training to be provided to pilot LEAs for full implementation of components
by September 30, 2012

b. Complete an evaluation of the State’s pilot model, based on current framework and
various weighting options by May, 2013, and recommend any necessary changes to
the State Board of Education by June, 2013.
6. By June 1, 2013, produce the Student Growth Targets (SGTs) for Arizona students (IT to
automate the data for the schools August—November 2012), train school districts on how to
utilize the data to drive instruction, and gather feedback from field. (AMOs will be derived
from SGTs.) (Carrie Giovannone, Mark Masterson)
7. Assess the SGTs and whether they should be incorporated in the A-F Letter Grade model.
Make a recommendation to the state board in October and write an amendment to bill 15241 incorporating the suggested changes to be submitted by January, 2013, for full
incorporation in FY 2014--2015. (Carrie Giovannone)

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