Nonprofit education groups have different approaches but similar goals: To improve schools and learning for students across the Grand Canyon State. We examine four of them here.

Arizona Foundation for Resource Education

Members funding the Arizona Foundation for Resource Education (AFRE) include names not usually associated with educational causes, from the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, Phelps Dodge Corporation and the Arizona Rock Products Association. The foundation’s stated purpose is to increase the understanding of natural resources and related industries in the state.

The foundation offers learning opportunities related to natural resources to educators, in the hopes that they’ll take these lessons back to their schools and students.

“AFRE’s professional development programs focus on the vital role that Arizona’s natural resources and natural resource industries play in contributing to and improving our quality of life,” says Larry McBiles, executive director of AFRE and instructor with the Arizona State University Department of Education.

“AFRE is committed to improving the quality of our state’s educational system by providing support and resources that make Arizona education more relevant and compelling,” he says.

The nonprofit group hosts programs designed to display “the importance of learning about where we live,” and encourage teachers to use that knowledge in the classroom. Other members of the foundation include Salt River Project, BHP Copper Inc., ASARCO Incorporated, and the law offices of Bryan Cave LLP and Gallagher & Kennedy.

In order to impart lessons about Arizona’s resources, the foundation delivers its messages in a number of formats, including study tours, free workshops and academies for teachers. The group also hosts a forum for instructor networking and recognizes programs that accurately teach about Arizona’s resources.

“The experiences provided by AFRE offer an excellent source of relevant curricula,” says Mr. McBiles, “with an emphasis on the importance of developing an appreciation for the concept of interdependence between ourselves and the world we live in.”

The foundation grew from a decade-long program funded by the state’s copper industry through the Arizona Mining Association. Today, it partners with Arizona Department of Game & Fish, the Arizona Science Center, the U.S. Forest Service and others.

Typical programs mirror the Feb. 12 session slated for instructors titled “Watts Up: Transforming Instruction About Power.” Sponsored by AFRE and SRP, the session will focus on “critical power issues facing our state now, and in the future.”

To Mr. McBiles, who has been associated with the foundation since its inception, providing these educational links is vital, so that succeeding generations can understand and appreciate the state’s environment. “Not only do (teachers) gain a better understanding of the importance of our interaction with the environment,” says Mr. McBiles, “but educators also learn valuable instructional tools to better prepare them for the classroom – thus better preparing their students to learn and become more informed citizens.”

For more information on the Arizona Foundation for Resource Education, visit the group’s Web site at www.afre.org.

Arizona Business & Education Coalition

Promoting a connection between Arizona’s economic and educational communities is the goal of the Arizona Business & Education Coalition (ABEC), a group founded in 2002 that strives to find common ground on education policy. It offers both corporate and individual memberships.

In fact, the organization’s membership reads like a Who’s Who of the state’s economic and educational worlds. ABEC board members include representatives from APS, Motorola, Intel, Wells Fargo and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, along with members from Arizona school districts. Its executive director, Susan Carlson, is a veteran of the Kyrene and Tempe Union High School districts, as a teacher and school board member, respectively.

“We work on consensus,” says Ms. Carlson. “We offer a place where business and education can discuss issues critical to educational excellence, and understand differences so, in the end, we can advocate together for a stronger K-12 system in Arizona.”

However, while ABEC’s participant list is broad, the advocacy group’s mission is highly focused. The group has identified several goals that they deem critical to improving education in the state. They include ensuring that third and eighth graders meet their academic goals on state required exams, and that high schoolers meet their state goals while preparing to enter the workforce or continue into higher education.

Along with academic goals are two projects currently being promoted by ABEC. One is the Arizona Academic Scholars initiative, in which members of the state’s business community are trained to go into eighth grade classrooms to encourage students to take a rigorous course of studies in high school.

“There is ample research that demonstrates that a rigorous curriculum for all students – not just high achievers – leads to better opportunities after high school,” says Ms. Carlson.

ABEC is also working with several leadership groups in the state, including the Greater Phoenix Leadership and Southern Arizona Leadership councils, to discern whether Arizona’s high school standards line up with the skills needed to be successful in the workplace.

“The business community in Arizona will need many more students coming out of the educational pipeline, prepared to meet the demands of a high-skill, high-tech workforce,” says ABEC’s executive director. “This means the ability to think, write, speak, do mathematics and the agility to adapt to a rapidly changing workplace environment.”

More information is available on ABEC at its Web site, www.azbec.org.

All-Star Kids Tutoring

One reason the All-Star Kids Tutoring program is successful, according to Executive Director Sara Mertel, is that it focuses on one-on-one. “As role models, volunteer tutors give their child something to look forward to and depend on every week,” says Ms. Mertel. “They inspire hope.”

The organization has been helping Arizona schoolchildren since 1996, when it was founded by a group of individuals seeking to help students in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

The mission is to provide volunteer tutoring to help elementary age kids master basic reading skills. Working closely with Title I schools, in which large numbers of children qualify for free and reduced meals, All-Star Tutoring works to identify children in grades 2-through-5 who are behind.

Tutoring sessions are held in schools, churches, community group offices and libraries, that offer their buildings for free. Each one-hour meeting includes a snack and drink, and a “character building activity that promotes such universal values as honesty and responsibility.”

“A tutor once told us, ‘What I love about All-Star Kids is that you get to the heart of the matter. You match caring adults with students who need the help,’” says Ms. Mertel. “It is certainly our aim to do so.”

Group members also are committed to improving literacy outside their tutoring sessions. “Studies have shown that the best way to raise low-income students’ reading achievement is to increase their access to print,” says Ms. Mertel. “Unfortunately, 61 per cent of our students have no children’s books in their home before they enter (the program).

“We seek to rectify that situation through our mont
hly book distribution program, ‘Bright Books,’ as well as through our Family Literacy Nights,” she says. “At the end of this year, every All-Star kid will have amassed a library of 25 books.”

Tutors come from across the community, and form the foundation of the organization, says the executive director. In 2004, for instance, volunteers provided weekly tutoring for 211 students, and through the group’s efforts, 1,900 new children’s books found their way to the homes of children. In all, more than 4,300 hours of volunteer time was donated.

“Our hundreds of community volunteers are the principal way that All-Star Kids Tutoring affects children’s lives,” says Ms. Mertel. “Overall, they broaden the worlds of their students and change their lives irrevocably.”

More information on this group can be found at www.askt.org.

Center for the Future of Arizona

The Center for the Future of Arizona seeks to keep educational issues in the public view by drawing attention to problems like Arizona’s high school dropout rate. Former Arizona State University President Lattie Coor and Sybil Francis, a public policy expert, established center in 2002. Ms. Francis is the group’s executive director.

It is privately funded through individual contributions and donations from philanthropic organizations in Arizona.

The Center now is examining Arizona’s high school dropout rate and the number of high school students who enroll in college.

“The impact on the economy, both in terms of foregone opportunities of a poorly educated work force, as well as the demand on social services, the corrections system and health care in our nation are significant,” Ms. Francis says.

The Center is examining third and fourth grade reading and math skills and analyzing the issues that prevent students from completing high school. It also is taking part in a Latino education study with the Morrison Institute to determine what works in schools that enroll large numbers of Latino children from low-income homes.

“We seek to identify what best practices the more successful schools employ that can be put into practice by other schools,” says Ms. Francis. “These best practices could pave the way for solid, defensible education policy recommendations for schools serving Latino or other populations.”

Chief among the center’s goals is defining practices that can stem Arizona’s tide of high school dropouts. “The center is taking a two-pronged approach to the problem,” says the executive director. “First, we are developing better ways to understand and define the problem and identify solutions. This means developing reliable data, a better understanding of who is dropping out of school and why, and what programs work to address the problem. Second, we are working on setting an ambitious and achievable goal for improving our graduation rate.”

Though Arizona’s dropout rate continues to rank highest in the nation, there are comprehensive and continuing ways of cutting that number, Ms. Francis says. “We want every child to graduate from high school in Arizona,” she says. —

More information is available at www.arizonafuture.org.