Arizona school board elections, 2016
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Elections
General elections for Arizona school boards were held on November 8, 2016; unopposed elections were canceled and did not appear on the ballot. Special elections were held in conjunction with some general elections to fill vacancies.
The 29 Arizona school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held school board elections for 86 seats in 2016. Here are several quick facts about those school board elections:
- The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was the Mesa Public Schools with 64,161 K-12 students.
- The smallest Arizona school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2016 was the Roosevelt Elementary School District with 9,724 K-12 students.
- All but one of Arizona's largest districts had three seats up for election in 2016; Phoenix Union High School District had two seats up for election.
The district listed below served 630,417 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each and its school board elections.
Issues
Drastic teacher shortages
A report released by the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association revealed that four weeks into the 2016-2017 school year, Arizona still had over 2,000 teacher vacancies. According to 12 News, that was 25 percent of all positions in the state. Dr. Doug Wilson, superintendent of Marana Unified School District, said the issue is "that the pool of teachers is very narrow. It really is, so this is going to be a problem for school districts all over Arizona for several years."[1][2]
Adam Sharp, a principal of Espiritu Charter School, said he was not surprised by the teacher shortage. “There's a lack of respect for the teachers some people view this as a lesser profession," he explained. Although the report looked at a variety of factors to explain the shortage, Sharp thought it came down to one issue: teacher pay. 12 News reported that Arizona's average starting salary was $31,874, while the national average was $36,141. Teachers were leaving for other states whose starting pay was $8,000-$10,000 more. Meanwhile, the open spots in Arizona were being filled by long-term substitutes. But that didn't cut it when it came to special education, which required a more particular skill set. Some district superintendents, such as Kristi Sandvik of Buckeye Elementary School District and Dr. Andrew Rogers of Liberty Elementary School District, were turning to contract agencies to find special education teachers. However, Dr. Rogers added that doing so was “significantly more expensive than if we hired people directly.”[1][2]
Election trends
Trends in Arizona school board elections
The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in school board elections held in Arizona's largest school districts by student enrollment. These districts did not utilize primary or runoff elections. Winners only had to receive a plurality, or relative majority, of votes to secure a seat. All of the school board elections held in the state in 2014 and 2016 were nonpartisan.
Details of the data discussed here can be found in the table below.
Competitiveness
A total of 86 school board seats in Arizona's largest school districts by enrollment were up for election in 2016. In 2014, 70 seats were on the ballot, and 114 candidates ran in the elections. That created an average of 1.63 candidates per seat, which was lower than the 2014 national average of 1.89 candidates per seat. A total of 38.57 percent of school board seats up for election in Arizona were unopposed in 2014. Nationwide that year, 32.57 percent of school board seats were unopposed.
Incumbency advantage
A total of 55.71 percent of the school board incumbents whose terms were on the ballot in Arizona in 2014 ran to retain their seats, and 89.74 percent of them won. Nationally, 81.37 percent of incumbents won re-election in 2014.
Thirty-five newcomers were elected to school boards in the state in 2014. They took 50 percent of the seats on the ballot, which was higher than the 38.19 percent of school board seats that went to newcomers nationally in 2014.
The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in the 2014 school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the U.S.
Data table
| Arizona school board elections, 2014 - 2016 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2016 | |||||||||
| All candidates | ||||||||||
| Seats up | 70 | 86 | ||||||||
| Candidates | 114 | TBD | ||||||||
| Candidates/seat | 1.63 | TBD | ||||||||
| Unopposed seats | 27 | TBD | ||||||||
| % unopposed | 38.57% | TBD | ||||||||
| % seats won by newcomers | 50.00% | TBD | ||||||||
| Incumbents | ||||||||||
| Sought re-election | 39 | TBD | ||||||||
| Unopposed | 15 | TBD | ||||||||
| Retained | 35 | TBD | ||||||||
| % retained | 89.74% | TBD | ||||||||
Academic performance
- See also: Public education in Arizona
| Education terms |
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| For more information on education policy terms, see this article. |
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NAEP scores
- See also: NAEP scores by state
The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The chart below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), Arizona students fared worse across the board than those in Nevada and Utah, but better than those in New Mexico.[3]
| Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Math - Grade 4 | Math - Grade 8 | Reading - Grade 4 | Reading - Grade 8 | |
| Arizona | 40% | 31% | 28% | 28% |
| Nevada | 59% | 47% | 45% | 44% |
| New Mexico | 31% | 23% | 21% | 22% |
| Utah | 44% | 36% | 37% | 39% |
| U.S. average | 41% | 34% | 34% | 34% |
| Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables" | ||||
Graduation, ACT and SAT scores
The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Arizona and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.[3][4][5]
In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.[6]
Arizona schools reported a graduation rate of 75.1 percent, ranking in the bottom 20 percent nationwide.
In Arizona, more students took the ACT than the SAT, earning an average ACT score of 19.6.
| Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Graduation rate, 2013 | Average ACT composite, 2013 | Average SAT composite, 2013 | ||||
| Percent | Quintile ranking** | Score | Participation rate | Score | Participation rate | ||
| Arizona | 75.1% | Fifth | 19.6 | 50% | 1,551 | 35% | |
| Nevada | 70.7% | Fifth | 21.3 | 32% | 1,454 | 48% | |
| New Mexico | 70.3% | Fifth | 19.9 | 70% | 1,626 | 12% | |
| Utah | 83% | Third | 20.7 | 100% | 1,684 | 6% | |
| United States | 81.4% | 20.9 | 54% | 1498 | 50% | ||
| **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013" | |||||||
Dropout rate
- See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states
The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Arizona was higher than the national average at 5 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 5.9 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.[7]
State profile
State profile
| Demographic data for Arizona | ||
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 6,817,565 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 113,594 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 78.4% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 4.2% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 3% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 4.4% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 3.2% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 30.3% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 86% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 27.5% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $50,255 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 21.2% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Arizona. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern
- See also: Presidential voting trends in Arizona
Arizona voted Republican in six out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
More Arizona coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in Arizona
- United States congressional delegations from Arizona
- Public policy in Arizona
- Endorsers in Arizona
- Arizona fact checks
- More...
See also
| Arizona | School Boards | News and Analysis |
|---|---|---|
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Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 AZEdNews, "Shortage has school leaders attracting teachers in new ways," September 14, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 12 News, "Study: Arizona least attractive state for teachers; teacher shortage at crisis level," September 27, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables" Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "statetables" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ ACT, "2012 ACT National and State Scores," accessed May 13, 2014
- ↑ Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT Scores by State 2013," October 10, 2013
- ↑ StudyPoints, "What's a good SAT score or ACT score?" accessed June 7, 2015
- ↑ United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data (CCD), State Dropout and Graduation Rate Data File, School Year 2010-11, Provision Version 1a and School Year 2011-12, Preliminary Version 1a," accessed May 13, 2014
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