Walking into the administration offices of Agua Fria High School in Avondale, Arizona, Joshua Murray, 25, had no idea he would become known as the crazy teacher. What Murray has accomplished in his three-years at Agua Fria is as eclectic as the man himself. He covered the walls with photos of sloths. He believes it…
Just north of downtown, a wrought-iron fence surrounding a simple white building gives no clue of the historical importance of what’s inside. A barber academy in a small classroom and a dance academy in a standard school auditorium don’t hint at anything special, either. But behind an office door labeled “Staff Only” in the back of the…
The state of Arizona has twice the amount of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) job openings than workers who are qualified to fill them. With a 2-to-1 ratio of job openings to job seekers, there is an increasing need for new talent in the state’s STEM workforce. “It’s a national issue. I just…
Lexi Noble, a 10th-grader in the Flagstaff Unified School District, had little time to prepare for a prototype of Arizona’s new civics exam. Her AP World History teacher emailed “us the study questions the day before we took it,” she said. “I was not even aware we were taking the test until I got the email.”…
Two Southern Arizonan nonprofit organizations, Native Seeds/SEARCH and Tohono O’odham Community Action, are working to promote wild food sources and desert tolerant crops in the region. Before Arizona became known for its cotton and citrus, before farmers moved west to tame the land, before Spanish explorers first set their eyes on the Grand Canyon, the Tohono O’odham…
