{"id":101,"date":"2022-03-15T12:25:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T16:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1101-spring-2022\/?page_id=101"},"modified":"2022-05-09T22:00:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T02:00:09","slug":"arizona","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/education-1101-spring-2022\/state\/arizona\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona: The Grand Canyon State"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Overview of Arizona Public Schools:<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

By: Zachary Marchese, Bowdoin College 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact the author: zmarchese@bowdoin.edu<\/em><\/p>\n

Date published: 5\/9\/2022<\/em><\/p>\n

Known for its desert climate and exquisite natural landmarks, Arizona (AZ) is home to nearly 7.4 million people. Arizona was founded in 1912, as the 48th state of the United States of America.<\/p>\n

Arizona possesses a wide range of public schooling options, including public schools, private schools, and charter schools. With a longstanding history of conservatism dominating the political timeline and landscape of Arizona, charter schools were first introduced in June 1994, to provide families and students with greater flexibility and freedom within public education. Fastforward to today, nearly 1 in 5 public school students in AZ attend one of the 601 public charter schools. That is nearly 222,200 students attending charter schools in the 1,111,000 public school students in the state. This statistic awards AZ with the largest share of charter school enrollment relative to overall public-school population in the country. In addition, there are around 2,666 private schools (over 50% of them being Catholic or Christian) in Arizona teaching 65,899 students, ranging from pre-k to high school.<\/p>\n

While the Grand Canyon State boasts a vast menu of schooling options, Arizona consistently ranks among the worst 5 states in the United States for the quality of their public education, on nearly every ranking, and is commonly referred to as the worst public school system in America. Source: (Hanson).<\/p>\n

Read on for a more in-depth analysis of Arizona’s school systems, and Arizona’s schools’ strengths, weaknesses, and conclusions.<\/p>\n

Arizona Public School Demographics:<\/span><\/h3>\n

Arizona is a very diverse state. The public-school student body population consists of:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • 4% Native American<\/li>\n
  • 2% Asian or Pacific Islander<\/li>\n
  • 45% Hispanic<\/li>\n
  • 5% Black<\/li>\n
  • 37% White<\/li>\n
  • 3% Two or more races<\/li>\n
  • 7% of students are learning English<\/li>\n
  • 46% of students come from low-income families<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Sources: (McFarland, 44, 66, 86) and (“Arizona Schools”).<\/p>\n

    Graduation Rates:<\/span><\/h3>\n

    In the class of 2019 high school AZ graduates, 88.8% of public non-charter<\/span> school students graduated. On the other hand, only 48.7% of charter school<\/span> class of 2019 students graduated, displaying an enormous disparity.<\/p>\n

    On a similar note, of the class of 2019 online school<\/span> students, a mere 49.7% achieved their high school diploma. Source: (“High School Graduation Rates”).<\/p>\n

    Graduation rate by demographic:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"
    According to “National Center for Education Statistics via MAP (mapazdashboard.arizona.edu),” here are the total high school graduation rates by particular demographics in AZ in 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    It is visibly clear that Arizona public schools produce lower graduation rates, in nearly every demographic, than the national averages.<\/p>\n

    Charter Schools:<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Since 2000, as shown in the graph below, the average population of United States charter schools within schools as a whole has steadily increased. Arizona, on the other hand, has displayed an extremely high percent, averaging around 24% of public schools being charter schools, yearly.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Source: Arizona State Board for Charter Schools’ website, https:\/\/azsbe.az.gov\/.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    As defined on the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools’ website, charter schools were “created in 1994 to provide a learning environment that will improve pupil achievement and to provide additional academic choices for parents and students.”<\/p>\n

    AZ charter schools are mandated to have a mission statement ensuring the public is aware of the vision of the school. This is the common place to share the unique program\/curriculum offered at the school, such as an extensive theater program, arts program, a STEM charter school, etc. In AZ, the majority of charter schools have a program or mission statement that make them stand out from the rest, providing parents and students with an assortment of specialty programs to consider.<\/p>\n

    While charter schools must admit students in an equitable process, such as a lottery, charter school demographics do not closely match the demographics of public-school students in the state.<\/p>\n

    According to an article published by AZCentral, “rigorous and progressive” charter schools tend to have a population consisting of more than 50% white, and less than 30% Hispanic. High risk or underfunded charter schools tend to have a population of less than 20% white students (Harris, et al). These statistics do not represent the demographics of the public-school student population, shown under the “Arizona Public School Demographics” section. While Arizona charter schools are supposed to admit students equitably, there are many allegations of corruption in admitting students to charter schools, including verbal recruiting.<\/p>\n

    Budgeting\/Funding:<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Arizona’s total state public education budget in 2021 was $9.18 billion, and average per pupil expenditure was $8,791. AZ receives $1.23 billion from the federal government in funding, equaling $1,159 from the federal government per pupil (Hanson).<\/p>\n

    Expenditure per pupil is broken down into the following categories:<\/p>\n