Ready Now Yuma is an initiative of Yuma Union High School District and Helios Education Foundation to ensure every YUHSD student graduates prepared to succeed in college and career. Through Ready Now Yuma, YUHSD and Helios are helping students maximize their full potential by providing every student with a rigorous program of study within a high expectations college-going environment.

The goals of Ready Now Yuma are ambitious but clear:

- Graduate every YUHSD student prepared to succeed in college and career;
- Embed a college-going culture within YUHSD; and
- Increase the number of YUHSD students entering and succeeding in postsecondary education.

Ready Now Yuma is based on some of the best practices and models in teaching and learning from across the nation and around the world. As a result, Ready Now Yuma is designed to support the academic success of students by:

- Providing every YUHSD student with a rigorous, high expectations curriculum;
- Supporting teachers to actively engage students in a learning model that emphasizes critical thinking, inquiry, and problem-solving;
- Focusing on mastery of skills and knowledge by providing authentic learning experiences and assessments;
- Enabling personalized, future-oriented conversations with students and families that reinforce the importance of postsecondary education for every student;
- Offering additional academic supports to ensure mastery of skills and knowledge for student success;
- Engaging students in higher standard exams and assessments which better predict college and career readiness; and
- Providing multiple pathways to college and career including, but not limited to, Advanced Placement, Career and Technical Education, and Concurrent Enrollment.

Ready Now Yuma is unique because it makes a world-class education available to every student regardless of past academic performance or post-high school aspirations. This type of program, in other high school districts throughout the country, is generally offered to students who excel academically, and too often, without the proper academic supports. Ready Now Yuma is for accelerated students, less advanced students, and every student in between. It is about challenging every student and supporting every student to maximize his or her full potential. Even our highest achieving students will be challenged and ready for the world’s most prestigious universities. Through Ready Now Yuma every student will be supported in pursuing a postsecondary education and prepared with the skills and knowledge he/she needs to succeed in college and career… and ultimately to compete in a global economy.

Now more than ever, it is critical for the academic bar to be raised for our students. Graduates today are entering a world where they will be competing for the best jobs against people in our community, from across the nation, and from around the world. Currently, Arizona students trail their national and international peers in academic performance, high school graduation rates, and postsecondary degree attainment. In Arizona, less than 20% of our juniors test at a college and career-ready level on the nationally benchmarked ACT exam. We have work to do, and Ready Now Yuma is integral to getting our students prepared for success post-high school. By providing our students with a rigorous curriculum and learning model that cultivates creative, innovative, critical thinkers within a college-going and career-readiness culture, we are equipping every YUHSD student with the skills and knowledge in demand by colleges, employers, and our community.

In order for the Greater Yuma region to thrive long-term, we need a pipeline of skilled and knowledgeable workers to keep our current businesses and industries growing strong and to attract new economic opportunities. YUHSD students are Yuma’s future workforce, leaders, and community members. Ready Now Yuma is designed to provide YUHSD students with a world-class education, so that they graduate prepared to succeed in college and career and become contributing members of our community.

Ready Now Yuma is made possible by a nearly $4.5 million investment over five years from Helios Education Foundation and existing resources within the school district. YUHSD is committed to managing our resources efficiently and directing them to those areas that will have the greatest impact on student academic success, and ultimately, provide the greatest benefit to the community such as teacher professional development, student academic support systems, and enhanced college and career course pathways.

To be college and career ready upon graduation, YUHSD students will be able to enter the postsecondary program of their choice – career and technical, community college, or university – without remediation. Remediation is when a student has to take high school level courses before advancing in their postsecondary program because he/she did not master the subject content in high school. Remediation is a proven barrier to successfully completing a certificate or degree. Ready Now Yuma aims to eliminate the need for postsecondary-level remediation of our graduates by providing a high expectations academic environment with internationally recognized, rigorous curriculum as well as offering multiple pathways to postsecondary education success including, but not limited to, Advanced Placement (AP) coursework, career and technical education programming, and concurrent enrollment options.

YUHSD students are entering a world where the greatest job opportunities require some form of postsecondary education whether license, certificate, or degree. In fact, a recent Georgetown University report predicts that more than 60% of the jobs of the future will require some level of postsecondary education. When we talk about creating a “college-going culture” in our district, it means we will champion the critical importance of continuing education beyond high school and create a culture where every student is expected and academically prepared to enter some form of postsecondary education including career and technical training, community college, and university.

YUHSD has adopted a rigorous, high expectations curriculum for all its students called the Cambridge program of study. Our 9th and 10th grade students are participating in Cambridge IGCSE and our 11th and 12th grade students will soon participate in Cambridge International AS and A level curriculum. The Cambridge program was developed by the prestigious University of Cambridge and is used in over 9,000 schools in more than 160 countries around the globe. Internationally benchmarked, Cambridge meets Arizona’s Common Core State Standards and is designed to prepare our students for college and career by developing critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication skills in our students.

YUHSD is committed to challenging and supporting every student in reaching his/her full potential. Due to the way the Cambridge Curriculum is administered by highly trained teachers and periodic assessments, students and parents will have many opportunities to identify where students are struggling and/or excelling. Their teachers as well as other district support, as needed, such as tutoring and counseling, to help them reach their full potential, will provide students who are struggling in the program extra guidance. Additionally, students who are excelling will be provided with enrichment opportunities that will deepen their knowledge of the academic content. YUHSD wants every student to excel in the program and strongly believes that students at all levels of academic performance will benefit from this rigorous, high expectations curriculum.

Students who are able to demonstrate core subject mastery on the end-of-course exams during their freshman and sophomore years have many options available to them. They may continue with their high school education taking Cambridge A/AS courses, Advanced Placement (AP) courses, career and technical education programming, and/or participating in concurrent enrollment opportunities. They may also qualify for early graduation. Arizona now offers students who demonstrate minimum college-readiness in core subjects the opportunity to earn the Grand Canyon Diploma (GCD), if they so choose. Students who pursue a GCD may then choose to continue in high school while directly enrolling in a university, community college,e and/or career and technical education program.

Yes, the core Cambridge Curriculum still leaves room for students to take elective courses based on their interests. The Ready Now Yuma model is actually designed to allow students more flexibility to pursue elective interests in their junior and senior years.

During their freshman and sophomore years, students have the option to take the end-of-course exams that are part of the Cambridge Curriculum program of study. These end-of-course exams provide teachers, parents and students with valuable information about the student’s level of mastery of the core subjects. It will identify areas where students are excelling as well as areas where additional learning may be required. Some students in the district will also take board exams aligned with the Cambridge Curriculum at the end of their sophomore and junior years. The board exams are extremely high bar tests that are traditionally provided to juniors and measure college and career readiness. The board exam results will not be used to determine a student’s ability to advance to the next grade or graduate from YUHSD but will instead be used as a gauge for students in terms of their college and career level of readiness.

Ready Now Yuma, and specifically the Cambridge Curriculum, meets Arizona’s Common Core State Standards. In fact, Cambridge Curriculum is globally recognized and internationally benchmarked so it is one of the best academic programs available in the world. As a rigorous, high expectations program of study, Cambridge Curriculum is designed to prepare every YUHSD student to succeed in college and career.

Every YUHSD student is required to take the AzMerit test, which is the current state test.* In addition, juniors take an ACT exam which provides valuable information to students, families and teachers about college and career-readiness. YUHSD students also have the option to take the Cambridge end-of-course board exams, which are another helpful tool in assessing each student’s mastery of core content knowledge. YUHSD fosters a positive culture where we use rigorous, high-bar assessments for academic goal setting, and to help students plan their college and career course pathways, identify academic support opportunities, and facilitate college-going conversations.

Passing scores on board examinations indicate that a student is academically prepared to be successful in credit-bearing, transferable college courses. In Arizona, students who earn a Grand Canyon Diploma (GCD) can enroll directly into a community college. Acceptance into a four-year university is solely at the discretion of the university’s admissions office.

Helios Education Foundation is a philanthropic organization dedicated to creating opportunities for individuals in Arizona and Florida to succeed in postsecondary education. Helios shares YUHSD’s commitment to ensuring every student graduates prepared to succeed in college and career. As a result, Helios’ staff is working closely with district leadership to support the successful implementation of the Ready Now Yuma initiative, contributing leadership, expertise, and financial resources toward the success of YUHSD students. Helios Education Foundation provided a $450,000 grant for the planning and piloting of Ready Now Yuma. Subsequently, Helios has committed nearly $4.5 million over five years in additional funds to YUHSD to fully implement the Ready Now Yuma initiative. Helios’ investment in Ready Now Yuma and the success of YUHSD students is earmarked for teacher and counselor professional development, expanding school district capacity and expertise, developing student academic supports, initiative evaluation, communications, and community outreach.

The leadership of YUHSD views Ready Now Yuma as an important long-term initiative that will open the door to opportunities for our students and the Yuma community by ensuring graduates are prepared to succeed in college and career. As part of our grant from Helios Education Foundation, the YUHSD provided a multiyear plan that shows how the initiative will be embedded and sustainable for YUHSD students far into the future.

Eric Patten, Chief Communications Officer, at epatten@yumaunion.org.