Governing Board | Student Growth

Many schools in PVSchools have gardens and other outdoor areas where students plant flowers, fruits, and vegetables, giving them hands-on learning experiences outside the classroom, cultivating their understanding of plant life, healthy living, time management, and more – including the wonder of watching a living thing grow and blossom.

As parents, we watch our own students grow and blossom as they navigate through their school years and beyond. We see them expand their interests, their friends, their abilities, and more. They grow taller, they grow more confident, they grow in wisdom, they grow in grace, they grow emotionally, they grow up.

Growth is desirable in our students and our schools. One way we can measure that is through numbers: Are more students enrolled in honors, AP, IB, and other challenging classes? Are more students involved in specialty programs, such as Journey and Quest, CREST and STEM, NVAA and other fine arts strands, and CTE? Are more students enrolling in college and other post-secondary opportunities? Are more students graduating? These are opportunities that we know support our students’ individual growth and development, and in turn, help increase our student enrollment.

Another way to track growth, of course, is through student achievement in terms of individual grades, increasing sophistication of projects and accomplishments as one advances from elementary to middle to high school, and performance on tests of all varieties. In Arizona, there are numerous statewide tests conducted at different grade levels, and for many, student growth has become a critical component of the overall school score. For traditional K-8 schools, growth is fully 50% of the score; this indicator “awards schools’ points for the academic progress students make on the statewide assessments in math and English language arts using the Student Growth Percentile metrics,” according to the state Department of Education. An additional growth component is embedded in points amassed by English language learners. High school grades emerge from more diverse considerations, including college and career readiness and graduation rates as well as improvement in the latter. But the bottom line is that school grades have evolved to expand their focus on student growth.

We have many, many schools that consistently attain high scores and grades. When letter grades were released in 2023, our own A-rated Boulder Creek Elementary School Bobcats had the highest overall percentage among all K-8 traditional schools in Arizona with a score of 103.82%. Hard to see how students could grow that score, but when grades were posted this year, Boulder Creek not only kept the number one spot, it did so with a score of 104.50%!

It’s a testament to the teachers, staff, parents, and  most certainly, students at Boulder Creek that they understand that there are always new heights to be achieved even when it appears one has reached the pinnacle. That’s a growth mindset we see in all our schools, thanks to all our staff and parents, and we appreciate the ability to work together to educate and encourage our students as they grow on their journey of excellence.

On behalf of the Governing Board,

Anne Greenberg

President