Lead with Five
Lead with Five
Two significant conversations are taking place in Arizona. One concerns school funding and whether there is more than enough or too little money in education. The other focuses on the expectations placed on schools and accountability for meeting those expectations. These conversations are taking place in isolation of one another.
Rodel, with additional support from Greater Phoenix Leadership, commissioned a study to answer the two fundamental questions behind these conversations. The report’s findings provide the foundation for future conversations about school funding and school accountability. It also outlines which research-based strategies will make a significant difference in improving public education in Arizona. Additionally, the report lists five strategic investments proven to be successful in bringing about the desired results in student learning and achievement. If all the programs and initiatives proposed in this report were undertaken, it is reasonable to expect student performance to double within ten years.
Just putting more money into the system won’t even begin to get us the improved student achievement our children deserve. By focusing on Lead with Five, Arizona can consider education funding an investment rather than just another expenditure.
Report Overview
The Reality
Companies increasingly follow either cheap labor or top talent. But no American region can compete anymore with cheap labor overseas. For Arizona to prosper, we must provide companies with top talent. And there are two ways to get talent.
The first is to be a magnet – to create a high-amenity place that draws educated people to live and work here.
The second is to be a pipeline – to produce an educated and talented workforce that will stay at home and form the foundation for future prosperity.
Arizona, with its K-12 population explosion, is ideally suited to focus on the pipeline approach. Despite the state’s recent push for rigorous standards, however, the pipeline isn’t producing. Based on National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), the closest thing to a report card for the nation, only a quarter of our elementary and middle-school students read at grade level – placing us 44th out of the 50 states. To compete for talent, Arizona must dramatically improve its educational system – indeed, we must double and triple current student performance. This will require far more than incremental improvement. It will necessitate a whole new vision for Arizona schools.
The Vision
Making education a success in Arizona means more than just raising expectations. It requires a new approach to operating the educational system – and to allocating the funds available. Arizona’s new vision for education must revolve around the schools themselves, making them
smaller and more manageable. The new vision must also focus attention and resources on the classroom itself – investing in strategies that will improve educational results. Simply put, Arizona’s education mantra for the next decade must be: Right Focus. Enough Money.
The Strategy
More specifically, Arizona must “Lead with Five” – focus most of its efforts on five classroom-based strategies that have proven to be effective throughout the country. These are:
- Providing full-day kindergarten for all students
- Preparing and recognizing teachers for high performance
- Creating smaller schools
- Reducing class size in K-3
- Providing one-on-one tutoring and extra help for struggling students
The Money
Simply adding these priorities on top of the existing educational system will not work. To create true reform, two things must happen. First, all existing instructional resources must be deployed toward the five proven strategies that increase student performance. And second, Arizona must face up to the issue of putting more money into schools. This report calculates that implementing these strategies in Arizona would cost $1,883 per student – increasing per-pupil spending in the state from $5,745 to $7,628 per pupil – which still puts Arizona below the national average.
The Expertise
Even with more money, is it possible to increase student performance dramatically? The answer is yes – if the money is spent well. The “Lead with Five” strategies aren’t pulled out of thin air. They are based on compelling evidence about what works nationwide. And the cost estimate isn’t guesswork either. It is calculated using a methodology developed by national consultants Dr. Allan R. Odden and Dr. Lawrence O. Picus – two educational policy experts who have analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the major school finance models and completed similar studies for New Jersey, Kentucky and Arkansas. A group of 26 business, community and education leaders and two professional judgment panels worked with Dr. Odden and Dr. Picus to complete an “adequate funding analysis” for Arizona.