Echo Mountain Intermediate School from Paradise Valley Unified School District is nominated based on their steady improvements in Project Momentum over the past three and a half years, resulting in exiting from CSI and ongoing student learning growth. Echo Mountain has become a model in the way it

After the 2022-2023 school year, Deer Valley MS had a D (56.09%) letter grade as a school. By implementing clear goals, expectations, best instructional practices, and strong protocols around collaboration, their letter grade increased to a strong C (63.78%) for the 2023-2024 school year, and then

The Arizona Department of Education is pleased to honor Washington School in the Winslow Unified School District with the Copper Apple Award. Washington School has exhibited excellence in action with the school raising its state letter grade from 66.56 points, a C in 2024-2025 to a 80.96 points, a B

Amphitheater Public Schools has done some great work using their Gifted program evaluation to positively impact their gifted program and students in general. Vanessa Hill, the Gifted Education Coordinator, and team has re-imagined the gifted program to be more responsive to the gifted learners

AZ Compass Prep Schools have been nominated for the Copper Apple because of the work of Principal Dr. Pamela Chandler and her team. School leadership at AZ Compass schools worked quickly to implement the state Navvy assessment system into their teaching and learning cycle and to incorporate the

The SPED11 – Preschool Outcomes Report found in the AzEDS Reports Portal has been updated to enhance data transparency for Public Education Agencies (PEAs). The CSV download now includes a new CreatedDate column, which indicates the date each preschool outcomes record was reported to AzEDS. This report provides a compilation of preschool outcomes scores for students receiving special education services that have been submitted to the Arizona Department of Education.

Special Education Directors, ADE/ESS is pleased to announce the launch of the state October 1 Special Education Count Dashboard (Federal - Child Count and Educational Environments), the first publicly available ESS dashboard for featuring federally reported IDEA Section 618 data. It provides

Data in AzEDS will be used to calculate ADM for Payment 3. Payment 3 will be based on data captured that is passing integrity and generating ADM in AzEDS. There is no option for districts to be paid on prior year data, or for charters to be paid on estimated counts. Please ensure data is reconciled

The FY 2026 Open Enrollment Participation Report is now available on the School Finance webpage under the Data Collection & Reporting for School and Student Membership Data section. This report provides open enrollment participation rates by school district, school, county, and specific related data

Are you in your first or second year as a special education director? If so, don’t miss this opportunity to register for the 2026–2027 Special Education New Director Symposium (SENDS)!