Teacher receives tech award at Crane meeting
A Crane teacher was honored Tuesday evening with the Arizona Technology in Education Association’s Young Innovator Award.
Gowan Science Academy sixthgrade teacher Rachael “Abby” Fulton received the award during the Crane School District’s monthly board meeting from AZTEA representative Nan Williams and GSA professional development coach Alissa Guevara.
“Every time I go into her classroom, it’s just amazing to see the things that she does with her students. They are always … working on real-world problems,” Guevara said.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Michael Hoffman gave a review of research from a Stanford professor and data collected from a New York Times series on education funding.
“It’s got some eye-opening information I think you’ll find pertinent to our current situation with funding as well as Crane’s place in that. So the big question is: Is quality a question of affluence? And I think I’ll wait to ask that question until the end.”
The review plotted districts’ third- through eighth-grade state exam scores from 2009 to 2015 along a graph of poverty and affluence. Poorer districts tended to score lower, while more affluent districts scored higher.
“However, Dr. Reardon and his graduate students have uncovered some interesting things with the data,” Hoffman said.
The data also showed how far behind students were when entering school, and how fast and far their learning grew over a fiveyear period. When reviewed in this way, Hoffman pointed out, poorer school districts “grew” their students just as much or even better than affluent districts. For the Crane District, a student might start one-year “behind” but by the time they leave the district after eighth-grade, they have caught up with their peers.
Hoffman noted that Reardon found that the “fastest growth rates couldn’t completely close the proficiency gap that exists early on between typical poor and wealthy districts,” leading Reardon to the conclusion that “Poverty clearly does not determine the quality of a school system.”
CFO Dale Ponder also updated the board on the district’s Dollars in the Classroom findings from the Arizona Auditor General’s office.
Crane students who excelled in local math, science and spelling contests were also recognized Tuesday evening.
Superintendent Laurie Doering invited parents to a safety awareness program from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. March 20 at Pueblo Elementary School’s cafeteria with the district’s school resource officers.
The district’s schools will be out for break from March 26 through April 2, but the district offices will remain open.