Cave Creek schools outshine ’em all

CCUSD – Students in the Cave Creek Unified School District were caught excelling again, some for the fourth time in the last five years.

All eight schools within the district were recently named Excelling Schools by the Arizona Department of Education.

Each school throughout Arizona receives an achievement profile which ranges from failing on the low end to excelling at the high end. The state education department uses a mathematical formula including data from test scores, attendance and graduation rates to compute the results.

It’s not easy to reach the excelling status, and to have every school in the district so named is outstanding, said Dr. Skot Beazley, principal at Sonoran Trails Middle School.

“We have wonderful students,” Beazley said. “We work very hard to make sure we individualize instruction for each student.

That is a reflection on the great staff we have here (at Sonoran Trails) and throughout the district. It’s nice to have great kids, but great teachers make quite a difference.”

Sonoran Trails has been named excelling for four out of five years.

“We’ve been on kind of a roller coaster here,” Beazley added. “We were named excelling for two years and then slipped back to highly performing before being named excelling again. The bar is being raised incrementally by Arizona to reach 100 percent proficiency by 2013. We have to work harder each year to maintain our standards.

“I think we’re getting smarter about taking data and applying it to the learning process. It’s become routine for our teachers to be able to take data, analyze it and apply it to the kids in the classroom.”

Dr. Tacy Ashby, superintendent of CCUSD, agrees with Beazley.

She credits a true professional learning community with a focus on achievement as the cornerstone to the district’s success.

“The dedication and passion of our parents and community it what truly makes the difference,” Ashby said.

Achievement profiles include more than test scores.

“Along with great pride in being 100 percent, excelling is knowing our district goal or an instructional porgram and assessment process that exceeds state standards and inspires excellence is in place,” said Javier Ladesma, CCUSD governing board president.