Coolidge Unified School District along with all other Arizona schools was notified Friday, February 20, 2015 that Governor Ducey approved signing into law SB1191 (graduation; passing test score; moratorium).  This prohibits the requirement for a student to obtain a passing score on a standardized test in order to graduate during school years: 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, or 2017-18 and exempts the civics exam from the moratorium. SB1191 included an emergency clause, meaning it is effective IMMEDIATELY. This is critical information as AIMS retesting is scheduled to occur in schools starting on Monday, February 23, 2015 through Wednesday, February 25, 2015.  

Until this moratorium was announced, students were required to pass all three portions of the AIMS test in order to receive a high school diploma. Passing the AIMS test is no longer a graduation requirement.

Testing will still be available next week for those Coolidge High School, San Tan Foothills and Coolidge Alternative Program students wishing to take AIMS for scholarship eligibility or other personal reasons. For more information on the AZ  “AIMS Scholarship” see http://www.azed.gov/endorsement-tuition-scholarship/files/2014/03/abor-scholarship-brochure.pdf

Parents or families with questions about testing availability in these situations should contact their child's school.

Future planned administrations of the test will be canceled.

The Arizona State Board of Education has selected the AzMERIT (Arizona's Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching) assessment to replace AIMS.

Beginning Spring 2015, all Arizona public school students in Grades 3 through high school will take AzMERIT in English Language Arts and Mathematics. This assessment will be aligned to the Arizona standards and is designed to assess what students know and can do. The State Board of Education still has yet to determine how the results of the AzMERIT will be used to determine school letter grades. 

We will continue to provide information regarding this new assessment as it becomes available. The Arizona Department of Education has created a webpage that also provides information www.azed.gov/assessment/azmerit

In addition, there is a short, informative YouTube video available about the new assessment: http://youtube.com/watch?v=tkZ9LjLR9yE