ESTEEMED EDUCATOR TO LEAD INSTITUTE,
HELP ARIZONA STUDENTS BEAT THE ODDS

Shawnee Mission School Superintendent Marjorie Kaplan Named
Director of the Beat the Odds Institute

	Dr. Marjorie Kaplan Director of the Beat the Odds Institute

PHOENIX (January 15, 2008) — The Center for the Future of Arizona, a Phoenix-based nonprofit, announced today that it has named Dr. Marjorie Kaplan Director of its newly created Beat the Odds Institute. Kaplan’s duties include developing and managing the Beat the Odds Institute programs, operations and community relationships.

Upon her retirement July 1, 2008 as superintendent of schools for the Shawnee Mission School District in metropolitan Kansas City, she will assume the position of Beat the Odds Director full-time. In the interim, Kaplan will advise the Institute on key matters.

The Beat the Odds Institute’s mission is to provide Arizona K-12 students with opportunities for success in the global economy. Its current focus is the statewide implementation of a research-based education initiative to improve K-12 student achievement in primarily Latino-intensive, low-income schools. Twenty-seven Phoenix-area K-12 schools currently are engaged in the first phase of the implementation program.

The collaborative, school-based initiative is an outgrowth of a nationally acclaimed joint study of the Center for the Future of Arizona and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University, entitled “Why Some Schools with Latino Children Beat the Odds … and Others Don’t.” Jim Collins, author of the New York Times bestseller “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t,” actively collaborated in the research.

An Esteemed Education Leader

Kaplan worked for 24 years in education in Phoenix prior to moving in 1992 to Kansas City.

She was superintendent of the Paradise Valley School District and the principal of Sunset School, a K-8 school in the Washington School District. During her tenure in the metropolitan Phoenix area, she was named one of the Top 100 Educators in the United States by Executive Educator magazine. Kaplan also received the Arizona Superintendent of the Year award from the American Association of School Administrators, and the Outstanding Arizona Superintendent Award from the Arizona School Administrators Association.

As superintendent of the second largest school district in Kansas, she is responsible for 28,158 students, 4,300 employees and an annual budget of nearly 424 million dollars. During her tenure, Shawnee Mission has evolved from a homogenous, English-speaking, middle and upper-middle class district to one in which 22 percent of students qualify for a free or reduced price lunch (an indicator of poverty) and 2,076 of the district’s students are identified as English language learners (ELL). Latinos comprise 10.4 percent of the district’s student population.

Despite demographic changes and budget challenges, for 16 consecutive years Expansion Management magazine has awarded Shawnee Mission School District a gold medal rating, ranking the district among the top four percent of school districts nationally.

“Marjorie is remarkably adept at dealing with the changes that took place—and continue to take place—in the district,” commented Fred Logan, Jr., a Kansas City-area attorney and co-chair of the Committee for Excellence, a citizens group devoted to maintaining high-quality education in Shawnee District. “She welcomed the ethnic and socioeconomic changes with open arms.”

She will help Arizona schools facing similar challenges in her new role as Director of the Beat the Odds Institute. Latino students are rapidly becoming the majority student population in Arizona K-12 schools. In general, Arizona Latino student achievement scores fall well below the state average. Approximately half of all Arizona Latino students do not graduate high school.

“I’m delighted to have Marjorie Kaplan return to the Valley,” commented Dr. Carol Peck, president and CEO of the Rodel Charitable Foundation of Arizona. “She brings a wealth of experience and creativity, which will be a great asset to both the Center for the Future of Arizona and our state.”

Funding for the director’s position has been made available by the Stardust Foundation.