Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R) announced Monday that the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) would take up the funding needed to continue expanding Project Momentum Arizona (PMA) in state schools.
“My job is to make sure student learning increases and test scores improve. Project Momentum Arizona has proven to be remarkably effective where it has been implemented. Every school in the Avondale Elementary [School] District [AESD] is now either rated A or B, and students in the Buckeye Elementary District outperformed the state average in the latest statewide achievement test,” Horne said.
Superintendent Horne is committed to raising student performance. That is why the Department of Education will pick up Project Momentum funding. You can read the @AvondaleESD case study about this program's success here: https://t.co/4A3fFuFJyL pic.twitter.com/qLR4oORdFk
— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) April 3, 2023
Former Governor Doug Ducey (R) initiated the PMA back in 2015 through grants to increase academic achievement and learn in state schools. Under the project, school leaders frontload instructional planning during the summer break and devote the remaining time to training and improving the teachers. The project makes students and teachers “partners in learning,” where the teacher learns to be a better educator, and the students become better learners.
To help teachers improve their work, they received training based on six cyclical questions meant to improve education. The cycle starts by asking the teacher what exactly they want students to learn or do, then what practices will yield the best results, how the teacher knows if the students are actually learning, how to help students not meeting the goal, and so on until the teacher answers how they will make improvements next time.
The AESD was among the first to implement the PMA in 2015; as Horne said, the district saw material changes. At the time, passing rates for standardized testing were 23 percent for English and 25 percent for mathematics. In the following years, passing rates in both subjects rose by double digits, surpassing the statewide growth rate.
Additionally, Horne said that the PMA also helps improve teacher retention.
“All other districts that use Project Momentum Arizona principles report similar success as well as improved teacher retention. Teachers want to teach and when they see students doing better year-to-year that is one of the strongest incentives to stay in the profession,” Horne said.
Then there is the money. The PMA provides schools with an extra $150 per student, which covers the additional time and effort teachers put into improving the classrooms. However, the grants which funded the project came from Ducey’s administration, which no longer occupies the governor’s office.
As reported by AZ Free News, Governor Katie Hobbs (D) gutted many of the grants Ducey approved, including the PMA. Dan Parris of the PMA spoke before the Senate Education Committee in March, stating that the project received a letter from Hobbs’s office stating that the previous agreement was “invalid” and ordered it to “immediately stop any and all efforts undertaken pursuant to the agreement.” Parris said that the project needed at least $6 million during the financial year to continue its goal of spreading to more schools across the state.
This is where Horne came in. His Monday announcement revealed that the ADE signed a $10 million contract with PMA to continue its operations and expansions. Horne said this decision “was very easy for me.” Parris also thanked Horne for supporting the project and Arizona students.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tom Horne” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Background Photo “Classroom” by Max Fischer.
