Nine Valley Schools Honored For School Improvement Efforts By Beat The Odds [October 2008]
Nine metro Phoenix-area schools have reached the first milestone on the road to becoming a “Beat the Odds School” — one in which student academic achievement exceeds expectations.
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Pathways to Post-secondary [September 2008]
A new center initiative funded by Helios Education Foundation will help create seamless pathways to various forms of post-secondary education and career training for all students. Dr. Sybil Francis, executive director, will lead the project.
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Sybil Francis Works for “Seamless” Education System [February 2008]
Dr. Sybil Francis’ efforts to better Arizona and create “the Arizona we want” are profiled in the Arizona Capitol Times.
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Latino Children Can Beat the Odds … but District Leadership and Support is Required [February 2008]
In a guest-authored article in the ASBA Journal, Dr. Lattie Coor shares “lessons learned” regarding moving schools toward greater student achievement.
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Esteemed Educator Dr. Marjorie Kaplan Named Director of the Beat the Odds Institute [January 2008]
The Center for the Future of Arizona is pleased to announce that Dr. Marjorie Kaplan has been named the Director of its newly created Beat the Odds Institute.
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University of Phoenix Pledges Financial Support to Help
Arizona Minority and Low-Income K-12 Students to Beat the Odds [November 2007]
University of Phoenix has pledged to grant $500,000 over three years to the Center for the Future of Arizona’s Beat the Odds School Partners program. The contribution is the lead gift in funding the implementation of a new Beat the Odds education initiative at 27 metropolitan Phoenix area K-12 public schools.
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Nonprofit Sends Jim Collins (“Good to Great”) to the Principal’s Office in
Effort to Increase Low-Income, Latino Students’ Workforce Preparedness [November 2007]
Amid growing concerns about the preparedness of the state’s future workforce, an Arizona nonprofit organization has launched an initiative in 27 metro Phoenix-area K-12 public schools in an effort to “beat the odds” and increase student achievement. The education initiative is based on research in which Jim Collins, author of the New York Times bestseller “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t,” actively collaborated.
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Beat the Odds Institute, K-12 School Partner Program Announced [October 2007]
Twenty-five Phoenix-area schools with predominantly low-income, minority student populations are teaming up this academic year with the Center for the Future of Arizona and its new Beat the Odds Institute in an effort to increase student achievement among all students.
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Beat the Odds Team Leader Announced [September 2007]
Terry Eisenberg has been hired as Beat the Odds Mentor Team Leader. During the 2007-2008 academic year she will manage a team of eight retired and sitting principals who will provide one-on-one mentoring to approximately two dozen metro Phoenix-area Beat the Odds School Partners principals.

Beat the Odds Leadership Seminars Begin [June 2007]
In June 2007, more than two dozen Arizona principals explored how to apply Beat the Odds concepts and maximize student achievement in their schools.
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PBS Documentary Features Yuma Principal, Beat the Odds Research Study [January 2007]
Principal Juli Peach of Alice Byrne School in Yuma is featured in the “Good to Great” television documentary airing on PBS stations around the country in January. Her school’s success was documented in the research report “Why Some Schools with Latino Children Beat the Odds … And Others Don’t” released in March 2006 by the Center for the Future of Arizona and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.
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