Arizona won an $11.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to continue efforts to improve the state’s lowest-performing schools.

A coalition aiming to bolster K-12, higher education, state infrastructure and children’s health care funding filed a ballot measure today for a new 1-cent sales tax hike that would go into effect as soon as Proposition 100 expires in 2013.

The initiative, filed by the group Quality Education and Jobs, would direct about 80 percent of the money it raises to education, with the overwhelming majority going to K-12 schools. The tax would raise about $1 billion a year.

A lawmaker’s attempt to have Arizonans decide whether to revive the voter–approved Heritage Fund is stalled in the House.

Arizona lawmakers are considering legislation to ensure the state is spending the same amount of money per student at each of its three public universities.

Desert Willow Elementary School teacher Luz Ordosgoitia colors water red to show her sixth-grade science class that density affects how water and several other liquids separate when mixed.

Rep. John Kavanagh says he’s decided to kill a bill that would have required college students to pay a portion of their school tuition.

Arizona officials have asked to replace federal standards under the No Child Left Behind act with state-level student performance standards and a school accountability system that they say will be more efficient and less burdensome.

The Arizona Senate has failed to pass three bills barring educators from partisan instruction, using unapproved course materials or using language in the classroom that violates Federal Communication Commission standards.

Arizona teachers may find themselves under greater scrutiny if the Legislature continues to advance bills barring educators from partisan instruction, using unapproved course materials or using language in the classroom that violates Federal Communication Commission standards.

A bill that would allow parents to shut down a failing school, fire its principal or turn it into a charter school narrowly won passage in the Senate today. The legislation applies to schools that receive a “D” or “F” under the state’s new grading system.