Web site aims to show how Arizona schools make a difference
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By ALYSON ZEPEDA
Cronkite News Service
PHOENIX (Tuesday, March 24) _ Bernie Sammons of Heartland Ranch Elementary School in Coolidge will kiss a pig if his first grade class reads and reports on 1,000 books by the end of the school year. And groups advocating for Arizona’s public schools want everyone to know about it.
Sammons’ story is just one of those featured on azschoolsmakeadifference.org, a Web site that education organizations launched last year to feature good news and accomplishments that might otherwise go unnoticed.
“It is a very difficult time for public education, so it’s really critical that the public understand some of the extracurricular things that are happening in schools so they can be supportive,” said Roger Short, executive director of the Arizona School Administrators Association.
The project is part of the Arizona’s Public Schools Make a Difference Every Day program, a partnership of seven education organizations.
Tracey Benson, media relations specialist for the Arizona School Boards Association, said the Web site aims to balance negative coverage of public schools with stories such as the accomplishments of Sammons’ class.
“Public education in Arizona sometimes doesn’t get the support it ought to and we wanted to change that,” Benson said.
According to the 2008 A-Plus Parent Satisfaction Survey conducted by Arizona State University, Arizona parents have a more positive opinion about their own child’s school than public schools as a whole. Benson said the goal of the site is changing that perception.
The Web site links to news stories about public schools and allows users to submit their own stories, which are edited before being published. The site carries more than 100 submissions.
Visitors can sign up to receive a weekly e-mail newsletter featuring the top stories.
A recent story covered Korean students who visited Tucson’s Townsend Middle School to learn English. Another featured Peoria Unified School District students who received awards from the Council for Exceptional Children for their accomplishments in the face of a disability. Still another honors St. David High School students who won the Arizona LifeSmarts Championship, earning a trip to a national competition.
Bill Blong, executive director of the Arizona Rural Schools Association, said the program is particularly important for rural schools because they don’t often get widespread attention.
“Rural schools do not get enough positive things said about them when a lot of times they have to do with less and have to overcome more,” he said.
Jessie Arroyos, the principal of Heartland Ranch Elementary School, said it’s important for students to see positive coverage such as the story about Sammons’ class, which so far has read and written reports about 500 books.
“It definitely motivates them and keeps them interested,” she said. “They like to see their names in print.”
Arroyos, who hadn’t known about the site or that her school was featured, said she thought the program was a really good idea.
“Everyone is so stressed out and worried about the budget and the economy,” she said. “It’s good to see that teachers are still focusing on students while they are here at school.”
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Web Link:
_ AZ Schools Make a Difference: www.azschoolsmakeadifference.org
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CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-SCHOOLS-DIFFERENCE: Tracey Benson, media relations specialist for the Arizona School Boards Association, shows www.azschoolsmakeadifference.org, a Web site the group established to share good news about Arizona’s schools. Benson’s group is one of several that teamed to create the site. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Alyson Zepeda)