October 2011 - On October 12, the Arizona Department of Education released, for the first time, A-F letter grades for every public and charter school in the state. These School/District Achievement Labels are the result of legislation passed last year. They are based on state accountability systems administered by the Arizona Department of Education and are designed to show how well a school and district do as a whole on mastering the state standards in the subject areas of reading, writing, and math. For the next two years, schools will receive both the new letter grades (A-F) and the old "legacy" labels ("Excelling" through "Failing"). After the transition period, schools and districts will receive letter grades only.

Both the old and new labels use the same AIMS scores to determine labels but in different ways. Both systems award "growth points" for student achievement; the old system awarded "growth points" based on comparing test scores to an average, where the new system awards based on each student's achievement grouping (high, medium, and low).

GUHSD is proud to announce that Independence received an "A" this year according to the new labeling system!

The achievement labels only represent a single week of AIMS testing and are not reflective of everything happening in the entire school. Excellence in teaching and learning is taking place at all our schools. For more information, questions, or to see what letter grade your local high school received, log on to http://www.azed.gov/research-evaluation/a-f-accountability/. To watch an excellent video that explains the new achievement labels, click here.