GRANTEE ABSTRACT 

Arizona
 

Overview 

The Preschool Development Grant outlines 

Arizona’s ambitious but achievable plan to 

make high-quality preschool programs more 

available and accessible in 20 High Needs 

Communities (HNC) as well as to support 

preschool infrastructure-building and quality 

enhancements. Arizona proposes to use 65% 

of the funding to increase preschool access and 

quality for qualifying 4-year olds in targeted 

HNCs with a proposed project outcome of up to 

an additional 133 new classrooms and an 

increase of preschool slots by 3,478 by end of 

the grant cycle. Using a strengths-based, 

comprehensive Early Childhood Quality 

Improvement Process (ECQUIP) community 

collaboration will be established within each 

HNC to support sub-grantees with unique, 

specific issues: increasing access to highquality and appropriate preschool programs, 

kindergarten transitions, literacy instruction and 

supports, English Language Learners, and 

providing Least Restrictive Environment 

placements for children with disabilities. 

Project Objectives and Activities 

Arizona proposes maximizing early childhood 

education (ECE) infrastructure with 35% of the 

funding. Arizona will increase access to 

Arizona’s tiered quality rating improvement 

system (TQRIS), Quality First (QF), in the 

Lead Agency 

Arizona Department of Education 

Year 1 Federal Award Amount 

$20,000,000 

Plan Period 

January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2018 

Preschool Development Grants will support 

states to build, develop, and expand voluntary, 

high-quality preschool programs for children 

from low- and moderate-income families. 

There are two types of grants. 

Development Grants are for states that currently 

serve less than 10 percent of four-year-olds and 

have not received a Race to the Top – Early 

Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant. 

Expansion Grants are for states that currently 

serve 10 percent or more of four-year-olds or 

have received an RTT-ELC grant. 

HNCs by devoting 9.8 million dollars over the 

next four years. QF is the rating system by 

which the sub-grantees will be measured as 

they move towards higher levels of quality, and 

is also part of the mechanism that will be used 

to identify and support specific activities and 

professional development needs. QF also 

provides additional comprehensive supports to 

the HNCs in the form of Mental Health 

Consultation, Child Care Health Consultation, 

and Inclusion Coaching. Arizona also proposes 

to advance the collaborative, statewide ECE 

Professional Development System and improve 

the qualifications and effectiveness of the early 

This abstract was submitted as part of Arizona’s Preschool Development Grant Application. 1 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DEVELOPMENT GRANTEE: ARIZONA
 

learning workforce by investing 12.7 million 

dollars in this strategy over the next four years. 

This grant will support robust professional 

development from ADE as well as financially 

ensures access to higher level college credits 

that supports movement toward credentialing. 

Some of these dollars are also committed to 

improving capacity within Institutes of Higher 

Education to offer robust programs for Arizona’s 

ECE and Early Childhood Special Education 

degrees. The last infrastructure building 

component is to establish data linkages 

between preschool and ADE. Arizona will invest 

2.2 million dollars over the next four years in 

Information technology (IT) to align preschool 

data with ADE’s K-12 State Longitudinal Data 

System (SLDS). This will enable reporting and 

analysis by the HNCs that can help identify 

achievement gaps, pinpoint initiatives that best 

promote positive outcomes, and provide data 

for longitudinal analysis. 

Arizona has widespread support for the 

Preschool Development Grant application, and 

has secured many letters attesting to this fact. 

The broad group of stakeholders includes state 

agencies such as Arizona’s Department of 

Health Services, Department of Economic 

Services, and First Things First. Support also 

came from the statewide collaborative Read on 

Arizona, a partner in grade level reading 

initiatives. Arizona’s State Advisory Council is 

the Early Childhood Development & Health 

Board which was also supportive of the effort. 

Arizona’s philanthropic community is generous 

and supportive of ECE efforts. Both the Virginia 

G. Piper Charitable Trust and the Helios 

Education Foundation tendered letters of 

support. The Arizona Head Start Association as 

well as local grantees also imparted letters of 

support. Child Advocacy allies, such as 

Children’s Action Alliance and Expect More 

Arizona also submitted letters of support. In 

addition, the Arizona Association for the 

Education of Young Children also supplied a 

letter. Lastly, in each of the 20 HNCs, ECE 

partners came together to sign a single 

collective letter of support. Each of these 

submissions is as different as the communities 

they represent. Examples of these partners 

included local FTF Regional Council 

representatives, private child care, child care 

homes, faith based programs, school districts 

and Head Starts. 

High Need Communities to be Served 

under Arizona’s Plan 

Alhambra Elementary District 

Balsz Elementary District 

Crane Elementary District 

Creighton Elementary District 

Douglas Unified District 

Fowler Elementary District 

Gadsden Elementary District 

Glendale Elementary District 

Littleton Elementary District 

Nogales Unified District 

Osborn Elementary District 

Paloma School District 

Pendergast Elementary District 

Santa Cruz Valley Unified District 

Somerton Elementary District 

Stanfield Elementary District 

Sunnyside Unified District 

Union Elementary District 

Washington Elementary School District 

Willcox Unified District 

This abstract was submitted as part of Arizona’s Preschool Development Grant Application. 2