State of Education Speech – 2008 – FINAL 1.7.08
When we speak of the State of Education in Arizona, we need to give credit
to Arizona teachers and administrators for the performance of Arizona
students on national tests. Even though we rank 49th out of 50 in our
expenditures per pupil, according to

Education Week, our students

perform above the National Average on the TerraNova test, a National test
that is given to all Arizona students grade two – nine, and the SAT and ACT
college entrance tests.
There are three things that really matter in education: the quality of the
teachers, the quality of the curriculum, and the motivation of the students.
At the Department of Education, we try to do all we can to help the schools
attract and retain highly qualified teachers, and help maintain the highest
possible morale, to implement a rigorous curriculum, and to stimulate
student motivation.
Helping teacher morale became a priority of mine many years ago, when
my children were small, and I served on a school board. In the morning, I
would help prepare my children for school: get them washed, dressed, fed,
shiny faced and enthusiastic for school. Then it all depended on the teacher
that I left them with. So I wanted those teachers to have a high morale.
At the State level, we have been doing what we can to make life easier on
teachers, so they can focus more energy on the students in their classes.
Here are four examples.

1

Teachers said the students were over-tested. We reduced testing time by
one half, but with more efficient use of questions, were able to issue just as
detailed reports. In fact, we have made the reporting from tests much more
useful for teachers by reporting grades, not just on subjects as a whole, but
for every concept tested.
Teachers were burdened unnecessarily to get finger printed every six years,
even though their finger prints do not change.

Under the new

requirements, fingerprint clearance cards can be renewed without refingerprinting. This will be a benefit to our teachers and maintains a high
level of security for our student’s safety.
Teachers were concerned about the complex requirements to be highly
qualified at the Federal level, and appropriately certified at the State level.
We have implemented the most liberal rules for Highly Qualified that the
Federal Government will allow, and are introducing legislation to align the
State requirements to the Federal ones.
Teachers

said

they

needed

more

opportunities

for

professional

development. We developed over 260 courses attended by at least 50,000
teachers per year in the past 2 years. Some of these are free, and available
on the internet.
Now, we are reaching out to teachers for ideas on how we can help make
life easier for them, so they can focus more on teaching the students in their
classes.

For

the

next

thirty

days,

2

we

will

have

a

website

(makemylifeeasier.azed.gov) where teachers can give us their ideas. We
entrust to our teachers what is most valuable to us, our children,
and we want our teachers morale to be high.
Each year, I have announced anywhere from three to eight initiatives at the
beginning of the year.

The following year, I have reported what we

achieved, under the theme “promises made promises kept”, and announced
the new initiatives for the next year.
I – Prior Year Goals
1. Education and Career Action Plans
The first goal last year was that every student should have a personalized
learning plan. Students should get long term goals, revise them each year,
and adapt their curriculum to their goals. The result is that they take a
more rigorous curriculum which is better preparation for higher education
or the job market. Over the past year, this initiative has evolved into the
education and career action plan, also known as the ECAP. We have made
significant progress over the past year in reaching this goal.
Nine out of ten seventh and eighth graders aspire to go to college, but only
two out of ten will actually complete college. Students who establish an
Education and Career Action Plan will be more likely to plan in advance for
college readiness, and will be encouraged to take the kind of more rigorous
curriculum that leads to success in college, or in high skilled occupations.
Over the past year, we have been actively engaged in professional
development and technical assistance regarding ECAPs for all students
3

through our Arizona High School Renewal & Improvement initiative. One
entire summit for high schools was dedicated to personalizing instruction.
Our September national dropout conference, held in Phoenix, attracted
nearly 500 participants, who were engaged in discussing strategies for
keeping students in school, including the utilization of ECAPs. Our Career
and Technical Education Unit has a head start on this initiative with
26,000 students creating plans between August and December of 2007.
We have proposed a rule for adoption by the State Board of Education that
would require that all students have ECAPs.
requires two votes.

The adoption of a rule

The first vote is called “Opening the rule making

process”. The State Board voted unanimously in favor, in the first vote, for
a proposed rule that will require ECAPs for all students. One more vote is
required. If, as we hope, the State Board of Education adopts this rule, then
all high school students in Arizona will be required to have education and
career action plans, and I believe that this will greatly increase the rigor of
courses students choose to take, which will make them more successful in
school and in life.
2. Digital Support
This past year, we began a pilot project for high schools where every
student would have a laptop.

Empire High School in the Vail School

District became our lead school. Empire is the first public school designed
and built for student laptop based instruction in the country. Pilot schools,
following Empire’s lead, included: Benson High School (Cochise County),
Vail High Charter School (Pima County) and Gilbert Classical Academy
(Maricopa).

4

These schools attended a two day 1:1 boot camp at Empire high in July.
The boot camp introduced participants to effective strategies to integrate
digital resources to assure students are successful at meeting state
standards. In addition, Empire High School teachers presented classroom
management tips and shared their experiences in using laptops and digital
resources with their students.
Eventually, we expect that every high school in Arizona will have a laptop
for every student. We have proven that digital tools enhance teaching and
learning. Students that use digital media applications find learning fun and
exciting. Districts and schools that have implemented digital initiatives
have cited decreases in absences, tardiness and disciplinary problems, and
increased student motivation and higher levels of communication between
students, parents and teachers.
3. International Schools
Our third initiative was to promote international schools, in which students
would become fluent in world languages, and acquire the international
knowledge needed to compete in the 21st century, which will increasingly be
dominated by international trade.
We formed a steering committee that involves partners in this initiative,
including the three major Universities in Arizona, the Thunderbird School
of International Business, the Apollo Group, legislators, businesses, and
other partners in promoting international education.
Schools that have an international emphasis, and that are participating
with this initiative, include: White River High School, Rhodes Junior High

5

School in Mesa, Desert Willow Elementary School in Cave Creek, Pueblo
Elementary School in Scottsdale, and Country Gardens Charter School in
Laveen.
It has been documented in other states that students in international
schools do better on academic examinations because of the added
motivation provided in these schools.

In addition, as we increase the

number of international schools in Arizona, we will increase the number of
graduates prepared for the important jobs of the future, as international
trade becomes more vital to our economy.
II – New Goals
1. Healthy Bodies Healthy Minds
Our first new initiative for this year is titled “Healthy Bodies Healthy
Minds”. Those who began history and literature, science and mathematics,
and the arts, as we know them, in classical Greece and Rome, emphasized
not only the development of the mind, but the importance of a healthy
mind in a healthy body.
Everyone knows that we have been working hard to increase academic rigor
in the classroom. But at the same time, we must be sure that our students
are healthy, and develop lifelong healthy habits.
Nationally, the percentage of overweight students has doubled in the past
20 years. Being overweight can contribute to the serious disease of Type II
Diabetes, which has almost doubled in the past 10 years.

6

We have worked hard, since taking office, to encourage the Legislature to
stop the use of vending machines in schools that push foods high in sugar
and saturated fat on students. We succeeded, and the Legislature acted,
for grades K through 8, but so far the Legislature has not acted with respect
to high schools. We hope that at some point they will. In the meantime, we
have encouraged high school districts to voluntarily comply with nutrition
standards, and a number of districts have done so, including: Gilbert,
Phoenix Union, Scottsdale, Flagstaff, Willcox, Blue Ridge, Douglas,
Window Rock, Tuba City, Tucson, Casa Grande, Humboldt, and Mary C.
O’Brien Accommodation District. The following Charters have also
voluntarily implemented the above nutrition standards: Sonoran Science
Academy in Tucson and Phoenix, Copper Canyon and Desert Pointe
Academies, Ecademie/Woods High School, and Berean Academy.
Part of our goal will be to add at least five new high schools to the list of
those that have adopted the voluntary nutrition standards, and ten new
schools to adopt our program to encourage more physical activity among
students.
In an experiment, high school classes in a pilot school took a workout
course right before math and literacy classes. In the literacy classes, the
students who worked out improved their reading level by a whole year over
one semester. In algebra classes, students who took the P.E. course
improved their scores by 20 percent compared to two percent improvement
in the non- workout classes. The results make sense as most of us know that
sitting down all day does not increase brain function.
Partners who have agreed to work with us in making a success of the
Healthy Bodies Healthy Minds initiative include: Arizona School Nutrition
7

Association, the Arizona Action for Healthy Kids, the Arizona Association
for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, the Department of
Health Services, the Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of
Pediatrics, and the Dairy Council of Arizona. To help set an example, I have
pledged to lose at least 20 pounds this coming year, and others in the
Arizona Department of Education have pledged to lose a total of 1, 700
pounds.
2. Transparency in Depth in Academic Achievement Data
The second new goal for this year is Transparency in Depth in Academic
Achievement Data. Technology now makes it possible to report to teachers,
administrators, and the public, not only how our students are doing, but
how they are doing with respect to every AIMS concept that we test.
The information that can give us this kind of transparency in depth , as to
how our students are doing down to the concept level, is gathered in what is
referred to as a Data Warehouse. Two years ago, the Legislature
appropriated $2.5 million for us to develop this Data Warehouse. Then,
last year, the Federal Government set aside $25 million for the same
purpose, and invited all 50 states to compete. Arizona submitted the best
application in the country, and was awarded $6 million out of the $25
million, by far the largest award, and a significant percentage of the total
for just one of the fifty states.
We now have the resources and by the end of this year, we will have the
Data Warehouse. For example, we will be able to report to principals how
well each teacher’s class did in learning each concept, according to the

8

student’s test scores, to help the principal target professional development
of teachers.
And, we will have the data to provide, for the public, the kind of
transparency in depth which is the hallmark of good government.
3. Adjunct Teacher Program
The third new goal for this year is an Adjunct Teacher program so that we
can be sure that every student has a highly qualified math or science
teacher. At the moment, there is a shortage of highly qualified teachers,
and over the next few years, that shortage in some areas is going to get
much worse. For example, the State Board this year increased math and
science requirements, so that freshmen entering in 2009 will need four
years of math and three years of science. Currently the number of math
teachers retiring is exceeding the number coming into the field, so that we
would need an additional 70 math teachers per year just to keep up. To
deal with the new 4 year requirement, we will need an additional 400 math
teachers.
We will need a number of strategies to deal with this. Universities and
businesses who have supported the increase in requirements, are hard at
work on partnerships to solve this problem. One example of a strategy will
be a new initiative to enable companies to allow highly knowledgeable
employees to have release time to teach one course per semester.
Consistent with the existing alternate pathway for teacher certification,
these adjunct teachers would have a summer course in methods of
teaching, then go into the classroom to teach the subject in which they are

9

experts, and then would be expected to continue to work toward full
certification. Companies that are working with us to develop this program
include: Intel, Boeing, Pinnacle West, Avnet, Medtronic, Texas
Instruments, Cox, Wells Fargo and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. We hope a number of other companies will join this partnership
and explore other strategies as well, such as tutoring and mentoring.
Part of education is to develop habit for lifetime education. For those
adults who continue to educate themselves, one of this years books that I
recommend is The Age of Turbulence, by Alan Greenspan, former
Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Here is what he has said that is relevant
to our job in education:
“During the past quarter century, as incomes at the middle and lower levels
of the U.S. income distribution lagged, those of the most affluent rose
rapidly … To a greater or lesser extent, most developed countries have
experienced the impact of technology and globalization much as the United
States has. Yet, although they confront increasing income concentration,
the impact to date appears to be significantly milder than what we are
experiencing in the United States … A very likely significant part of the
explanation for recent developments appears to be the dysfunction of
elementary and secondary education in the United States.” (pages 397, 399)
What he is saying is that the only solution to our country’s economic
problems, caused by the impact of technology and globalization, is to
produce more of the highly skilled workers the modern economy demands,
and rewards with high wages.

10

So as we at the Department of Education continue working, as we have for
the last five years, to increase academic rigor in the classroom, it is partly to
assure students a better life, and it is also partly to help ensure the
economic prosperity of the state of Arizona and ensure that the United
States will be a great nation in the future, as it has been in the past.

11