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Roosevelt School District Phoenix "in serious trouble with Arizona Department of Education

The Roosevelt Elementary School District, located in Phoenix area schools on the south side of town, is in serious trouble. The district mostly low income had to deal with turbulent years, and the eventual takeover by the Arizona Department of Education only exacerbates the situation.

Last December, Arizona Department of Education held a meeting at one school gyms Roosevelt to present the situation for all concerned. More than 200 parents, teachers and other community members were present as the Arizona schools Chief Tom Horne, flanked by 25 of his senior staff, provided the problems of the Phoenix Schools Roosevelt District. Five members of the Phoenix Schools Roosevelt District Council were present.

Horne, a Harvard-trained lawyer, did not mince words as he presented slide after slide and graph after graph that illustrates the many negatives for the Phoenix area schools. Many participants were visibly stunned by the enormity of the situation they and the district are facing.

A point hammered Horne members of the five Phoenix Schools Roosevelt District Council has, and the public is that other school districts were much better with similar resources. Three schools in neighboring districts Phoenix as many families as poor neighborhood Roosevelt. They also have many students with English as a Second Language need additional time, resources and courses to learn English to succeed in Phoenix schools. Yet, these three schools districts Phoenix have between 64 and 78 percent of their students performance at ground level in mathematics for the third year, with Roosevelt to 45 percent and 62 and 72 percent in reading, with Roosevelt to 34 percent. The same is true in that other score. A total of 27 separate measures, Roosevelt is much lower districts of three other schools comparable Phoenix. That's almost double the number of students demonstrating academic achievement, compared Roosevelt. (You can read the graphics Horne: http://www.ade.az.gov/administration/superintendent/articles/RooseveltDistrictSpeech.pdf .)

What really seen these people is that Roosevelt receives funding per student over the average state but no other district in the state has played so poorly. In 2005, Arizona Department of Education ranked 10 of the Roosevelt school as "performance-cons". The district has only 21 schools. This was an unprecedented amount of "performance" schools in Phoenix schools region.

Things must improve quickly to schools in the district of Phoenix. Otherwise, the state will cover the area and all its schools. Horne lobbied the revision practices of the district and replace ineffective staff. Meanwhile, Horne has called for legislation to allow the State to take over whole districts and school boards for poor student performance.

The Roosevelt district has taken the threat of takeover by Horne heart. This year they have undertaken many major changes, including:

• New innovative practices;

• District teachers work together to develop a guaranteed and viable;

• Teachers at all levels are involved in mapping program, which allows a teacher to understand what standards to teach students to teach and when;

• A progress report standards-based system replaces the statement of rank, to help teachers and parents understand the language of standards and create consistency between reports and district test results statewide, and

• A comprehensive guide has been developed and implemented which includes standards and curriculum pacing calendar.

Only time (and a very short time, for that matter) we tell if these changes are sufficient to raise the school district performing schools Phoenix Roosevelt. Otherwise, the district will be under new management – The state.

About the Author

Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more information on Phoenix schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Arizona/Phoenix/index.html

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