2016-2017 Year in Review

Academies of Math and Science – Year in Review

2016-2017 was a memorable school year for the Academies of Math and Science, Tucson and Phoenix charter schools. Our flagship school was immensely honored to be named the 2016 Arizona Charter School of the Year by the Arizona Charter Schools Association. All four AMS charter schools excelled as usual, particularly in STEM-related competitions. However, the year’s highlights also include sports achievements, expansion of the reading program, and a few fun activities such as fiestas and field trips!

AMS Prince – Central Tucson

2016 Arizona Charter School of the Year!

The National Blue Ribbon School has been A-rated by the Arizona Department of Education every year since letter grades were implemented, and has significantly outperformed state averages on the AIMS and AzMERIT assessments. AMS prides itself on offering an advanced, well-rounded education to students of all backgrounds, and was honored to be selected as the Arizona Charter School Association’s 2016 Arizona Charter School of the Year.

You can read the full article here: https://azcharters.org/2016-charter-school-of-the-year-academy-of-math-and-science-prince/

AMS held a celebration at the school in February with over 70 community, education, and business leaders in attendance. Speakers included Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, A for Arizona’s Executive Director Lisa Graham Keegan, Arizona Charter Schools Association COO Robert DiBacco, and AMS students and alumni.

AMS at National School Choice Week

For National School Choice Week in January, AMS Prince students were asked to lead a dance for the Tucson national celebratory event. They were able to extend the day to include a tour of the Tucson Museum of Art as well as a field trip to the Flandrau Science Center on the University of Arizona campus.

STEM Competitions

AMS students of all ages achieved great things in STEM competitions this year.

The AMS Termitaur middle schoolers placed 8^th overall (out of 41 schools) in the Enchantment division at Northern Arizona University for the First Tech Challenge Robotic State Games designed for 7th-12th graders.

Two awesome AMS 8th graders received the 3rd place grand award in engineering at the Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair.

Mrs. Andrist’s 1st grade class received a 1st place grand award in physics for their project about levers.

Great science is happening at AMS!

MASSA – South Tucson

Pascua Yaqui Tribe Awards Grant to MASSA

At the beginning of the school year, MASSA received an extremely generous donation of $20,000.00 from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. The donation was used to add more technology for our students, including 30 chrome books, 30 tablets and a mobile cart so that each classroom has chrome books available for students to use.

MASSA Students Compete in the International Math Kangaroo Competition

The Math Kangaroo Competition is held each year in March, with participating students coming from all over the nation. MASSA had 39 students rise to the challenge, and 11 of these students placed in the top 10% for the State of Arizona, and 27 students ranked in the top 20% nationwide.

AMS Flower – Phoenix

Library Expansion and Focus on Reading

On September 12th, AMS Flower staff spent an entire Saturday picking up a huge donation of books, which required a full U-haul and nearly doubled the library’s collection!

AMS Flower also partnered up with the Phoenix Public library to encourage kids at our school to read even more by giving each student an application for the public library and rewarding the class with the most sign-ups with a field trip to Burton Barr Library.

Sports Success

Flower student athletes exceled in sports throughout the year. The Football team ended the season ranked 17^th in state, Boys’ Track and Field placed second in state, and Girls’ Basketball were the conference champions!

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Finishing with a Fiesta

The Flower campus finished off a fun and successful year with a fundraiser full of food, face painting, giveaways, bouncy houses, dunk tanks, and more.

AMS Camelback – Phoenix

KaBOOM! Playground Project

The Firebirds kicked off the year with a community build to construct a brand new playground. Volunteers, parents, teachers, and students alike joined minds and shovels to plan and build the entire playground, generously donated by KaBOOM! and Target to promote the importance of play.

Soaring Above Competition

Our students at AMS Camelback also performed remarkably well in academics throughout the year. Upon walking in, you will be face-to-face with the iconic rising firebird of AMS and the proof of the school’s commitment to academic growth through data-driven instruction. Covering the entire lobby wall is a large graph depicting the latest test data and growth of the AMS Camelback students.

Visiting families and community members can see that grade level after grade level at AMS Camelback exceeded the expectations of academic growth within a single school year, and can also feel the dedication – from staff and students alike – to continue this level of excellence in upcoming school years.

Looking Forward

We are proud of all our accomplishments from the 2016-2017 school year, and intend to keep up the momentum for 2017-2018. Three of the four campuses will be completing construction projects over the summer to accommodate 600 additional students this fall. We know that our motivated staff and students will continue to achieve even greater things every year.