Building and Reforming Systems
The Foundation’s education reform work identifies and disrupts structural and systemic barriers to equity, access and success for all students in Arizona, and especially Latino students. We find key leverage points that open the door to opportunity for students from pre-K through postsecondary. Additionally, we’re working to reform and align birth-5, K-12, community college and university systems to support student degree completion. Ready Now Yuma and BUILD Arizona are two examples of Helios’ work to build and reform education systems in the state.
Ready Now Yuma
Helios and Yuma Union High School District are working to ensure that every student in the district is prepared to succeed in college and career. Through our Ready Now Yuma initiative, we are helping students maximize their full potential by providing every student with a high expectations, performance-based, student-centered curriculum. Through this work, every student – regardless of past academic performance or post high school aspirations – is challenged, supported and prepared to succeed in college and career. The ultimate goal of this program is to ensure that all 11,000 students in Yuma Union High School District will be equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the 21st century workforce. The Foundation has invested over $5 million in this five-year, district-wide reform initiative that is currently in the fourth year of implementation.
The Foundation has invested over $5 million in this five-year, district-wide reform initiative that is currently in the fourth year of implementation.
Advancing BUILD Arizona – Arizona Early Childhood Education Alliance
BUILD Arizona is an alliance of 50 organizations from across the state who are working together to give every Arizona child a great start in life. This collaborative is raising awareness, building support and advocating for policies, programs and funding to ensure all Arizona children are prepared for kindergarten and are on track to succeed by the end of third grade. Through a shared leadership alliance that brings diverse stakeholders and partners together, BUILD Arizona is executing on the goal of creating an aligned, high-quality early childhood system (birth through age eight).
The collaborative’s structure consists of Steering and Leadership committees comprised of First Things First, Read on Arizona, community based organizations, school superintendents, business leaders and philanthropy. These partners work together to align the key system components of quality, health, professional development, parent engagement and language acquisition, building best practices in these areas and creating a collective policy and action agenda. Over the last four years, Helios has invested $800,000 toward advancing BUILD Arizona’s reform efforts.
BUILD Arizona is now Arizona Early Childhood Alliance (AZECA). This change occurred in early 2016.
“Unlike the K-12 system, there is no formal statewide early childhood system in Arizona. We believe there needs to be more coordination among policymakers, practitioners, early childhood educators and families in order to ensure Arizona is serving the needs of our youngest children.”
Dr. Karen Ortiz, Vice President and Program Director,
Early Grade Success, Helios Education Foundation