Arizona School Administrators

In This Issue:

• Upcoming Events & Calendar
• New Data Dashboard
• Career Center - Current Openings
• District Support Services
• Federal Revenue Data by State
• Opportunity - 9th Grade Success Accelerator Cohort
• NCTQ District Policy Pathfinder
• AZSTA Free PD
• Free PD on Deescalation & Reunification Strategies
• NASS John Lewis Youth Leadership Award
• CoSN News - Change Management for Ed Tech
• Cyberbullying Support
• Fall 2026 American School District Panel Survey
• ASA Staff

Important Dates (mark your calendar):

• ASA Member, Division & Board Meetings - Nov 20th at DVUSD
• ASBA/ASA Winter Conference - Dec 16-18 at Kierland Westin

Click HERE to access our events calendar. You can access the 2026-27 calendar via a link at the bottom of that page or by clicking below (calendar revised 9/3/2026):

ASA and Bespoke Economics are pleased to offer the SignalEd AZ Dashboard, now available as an exclusive benefit for ASA members.

The dashboard enables administrators to visualize student mobility across Arizona, with data at the state, county, district, ZIP code, and school levels. It brings together traditional district schools, charters, private schools and Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) in a single view and allows you to track how enrollment patterns are evolving over time. By analyzing capture rates across neighborhoods, you can see where you are attracting students and where you are losing them.

This dashboard helps you answer key questions, including:

• Market Share: How many resident students live within your boundaries and what percent choose you?
• Student Outflow: Where do resident students go when they opt out, and which competitors are gaining from these shifts?
• Competitive Landscape: What are the characteristics of the schools receiving your students, and how do they compare to your district’s offerings?
• ESA Impact: What is the footprint of ESAs on your district and surrounding areas?
• Demographic Trends: How do current birth rates and neighborhood trends compare to historical levels?

Login invitation emails were sent to ASA members on May 11, but they expire after 30 days. Please let us know if you have not received yours (please check your spam folder first). You can get help by emailing info@bespokeecon.com.

Visit ASA's Career Center for the latest opportunities.

• Superintendent, Holbrook USD - click HERE to apply by October 30, 2026
• Professor of Practice in Ed Leadership & Policy (Univ of AZ) - click HERE to apply by November 2, 2026

Contact ASA if you need help with a superintendent search.

We've expanded our support services and can customize these options to best meet your needs. Click HERE for more information.

In fiscal year 2024, according to the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of School System Finances, public school systems took in about $995 billion, of which about $115 billion, or 11.6%, came from federal sources.

Click HERE to read more and access an interactive data dashboard.

The Center for High School Success (CHSS), a national nonprofit focused on improving on-time high school completion rates, today announced that it has begun accepting applications for its inaugural 9th Grade Success Accelerator cohort. Set to launch in January 2027, the Accelerator aims to strengthen school district systems, structures, and strategies to help students stay on track to graduate and secure their futures. CHSS will select up to 10 school districts to participate in this grant-funded cohort. Applications are due by October 30, 2026. Click HERE for more information.

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a nonpartisan research and policy nonprofit, recently created a new, free resource: the District Policy Pathfinder.

District Policy Pathfinder helps district leaders get to credible, evidence-backed policy solutions quickly without sacrificing rigor. With Pathfinder, you can compare district policies across any of the 100+ districts in the database (and even limit to districts with specific characteristics), view exemplary policy language from those who are leading the way, and explore the research to see what works across seven policy topic areas:

• Benefits

• Collective Bargaining and Contracts

• Differentiated and Performance Pay

• Evaluation

• General Salary

• Leave

• Teacher Time

Here are a few examples of the types of compensation and working conditions questions Pathfinder can help answer:

• Is our starting salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree competitive enough to win candidates who have other offers?

• How long does it take a teacher in our district to reach maximum salary, and does that timeline help or hurt retention compared to peer districts?

• How does our health insurance contribution compare to nearby districts—and could that be quietly costing us candidates?

• How much planning time do our teachers get compared to similar districts—and could that be a lever for retention we're underusing?

• What kind of parental leave do we offer relative to comparable districts, and is it a competitive disadvantage in recruiting?

Interested in learning more? Watch this walkthrough of Pathfinder’s tools and resources (5 min) - click HERE.

Please reach out with any questions.

Shannon Holston | Chief of Policy & Programs, shannon.holston@nctq.org

National Council on Teacher Quality

1032 15th Street NW #242, Washington, D.C., 20005
202-393-0020 | nctq.org

The AZ Science Teachers Association is offering free sessions to help administrators support science instruction.

November 19, 2026 | 10:30–11:00 AM Arizona Time
Listen for the Learning: What Productive Science Talk Sounds Like
Examine classroom video and transcript evidence to identify teacher moves and student interactions that support reasoning, discussion, and collective sensemaking.

Register here

Each session is facilitated by Sara Torres and Rebecca Garelli and is designed to give administrators practical ideas they can use right away.

ASU currently has free online professional development opportunities available for School Administrators and School Resource Officers through our PRVNT School Violence courses. Some of the topics these courses cover are reunification and deescalation and crisis response in schools. Additionally, we have 1-hour professional development courses for mental health professionals.

We also have resources for families who might want further guidance on how to talk to their children about school safety concerns. The courses for families are only 15 minutes long. Please refer to the attached flyer to follow the instructions on how to register.

Attached are all the flyers for each of these free online professional development opportunities.

Please reach out to us if there are any questions.

Thank you for all your work supporting our schools,

The PRVNT School Violence Team

The Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics

Arizona State University

Center for Child and Family Success

The Office of the Arizona Secretary of State is now accepting applications for the NASS John Lewis Youth Leadership Award 2026.

This award recognizes young leaders who demonstrate a commitment to civic engagement, leadership, and service in their communities.

Application Deadline: November 19, 2026, at 5:00 PM (Arizona Time)

A panel of Arizona election officials will review the applications and announce the recipient at a later date (TBD).

To apply, scan the QR code or complete the application using the link below:

Scan the QR or use link to join

Application Link: Apply for the John Lewis Youth Leadership Award

Please share this opportunity with eligible students and youth leaders who may be interested.

If you have any questions, please contact Celina Olivas at colivas@azsos.gov.

AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and CoSN, the Consortium for School Networking, have launched a partnership committed to building a community of engaged superintendents and other school system leaders who have the skills and knowledge to bolster dynamic digital learning environments on behalf of K-12 students.

AASA is the premier organization for our nation’s superintendents, while CoSN serves as the premier professional organization for school system technology leaders. The focus this month is on the CoSN 2026 Blaschke Report: Change Management for Education Technology: A Practical Guide for District Leaders and the CoSN/AASA EmpowerED Superintendents edLeader Panel Broadcasts, along with information about CoSN Membership.

Click below for the latest CoSN newsletter.

FACT: 58% of U.S. teens have been cyberbullied at some point in their lives (Cyberbullying Research Center, 2025). October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and cyberbullying has changed shape. It has spread into group chats, comment sections, and AI-generated deepfakes.

• Toolkit | The #WinAtSocial Cyberback Toolkit

  • This National Bullying Awareness Month, The Social Institute’s free Cyberback Toolkit equips K-12 educators with insights and strategies to tackle cyberbullying—from group chat drama to A.I. deepfakes—and empower students to stand up for one another online. Check it out now!

• On Demand Webinar | A.I. Deepfakes + Cyberbullying: Research-based strategies for how school communities can navigate the evolution of cyberbullying

  • Watch this on-demand webinar to discover strategies for preventing deepfake cyberbullying at your school!

The fall 2026 American School District Panel (ASDP) survey is now open. If your district is in the sample, you received an email invitation from ASDP@rand.org on October 21. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain useful data and ensure your perspective is represented!

The 7-minute survey covers budget constraints, declining enrollment, career-connected learning, AI guidance, advanced math coursework, and civic learning. Participating districts will receive a customized report in February 2027 showing how their responses compare with those of districts nationwide—useful for benchmarking and internal planning.

ASDP is the only nationally representative survey of school districts, and district responses help inform philanthropic funding decisions and contribute to findings used by policymakers and education media.

Please complete the survey by December 4 to make sure your district is represented!

The ASDP publishes timely reports and provides free, interactive data sets with results for all districts. Learn more at www.americanschooldistrictpanel.org.

Veronica Brawner, Office Manager: veronica@azsa.org

Carmen Ramirez, Administrative Assistant: carmen@azsa.org

John Hughes, Membership Coordinator: johnh@azsa.org

John Fung, Business Development: jfung@azsa.org

Rebecca Beebe, Dir. of Governmental Affairs: rbeebe@azsa.org

Dr. Paul Tighe, Executive Director: ptighe@azsa.org

Website: www.azsa.org
Location: 1910 W. Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85009
Phone: 602-252-0361
Twitter: @Arizona_ASA