Many people would have us believe that education in Arizona is broken. While we have changes to make and improvements to explore, everything in our education system is not gloom and doom.
We have some terrific things happening throughout Maricopa County. During my first few years in office, I have been working to hold up the best examples of education in Maricopa County. I fundamentally believe that we need to recognize what is working, share it with others, and ask our teachers, superintendents, legislators, and other leaders to create environments that build upon the best educational examples.
To that end, I have been traveling to schools around the county and sharing in short videos some of the best things I have seen. For example, Cave Creek USD has three great immersion programs: Chinese, Spanish and French. Mesa Public Schools has one of my favorite schools at Zaharis Elementary. Zaharis takes an inquiry approach to learning. People are beginning to explore and adapt their model.
These are just a few of the many things that are right in our schools and should be celebrated. My effort to celebrate these success is called: Where’s Watson. To see some of these academic success stories, please visit the Maricopa County School Superintendent’s web site.