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The school serves sixth through eighth grade students. Several UA colleges support the students and teachers through mentorship and training programs.

As an audience of more than 90 sixth through eighth grade students listened, Tom Horne, Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction, presented the Arizona Learns Achievement Award to Wildcat School on Friday.

The school went from "Underperforming" to "Performing Plus" and from "Not Making Adequate Yearly Progress" to "Making Adequate Yearly Progress" during the last school year – a feat rarely accomplished in such a short time.

"The students knew what the award meant and worked hard to meet the expectation set by teachers and administrators. It truly took everyone working hard to achieve what we were able to do," said Scott Mundell, the Wildcat School's superintendent.

The Wildcat School is a charter school affiliated with The University of Arizona and has a commitment to motivate students to prepare them for higher education.

The school opened its doors in August of 2006. In 2007, the school experienced an enrollment boom. The school went from 60 students when it opened in 2006 to a 2008 enrollment of 170 students.

The school recently moved from a location on Drexel and Irvington to its present location at the intersection of Stone and Drachman in central Tucson.

Superintendent Horne delivered an energized speech where he paid tribute to the late Bill Estes, Jr. and the Estes family, who are education proponents and financial contributors to the Wildcat School.   

The Estes family played an essential part in relocating the Wildcat School to its current location.

Horne said great students have great teachers and asked the students to cheer if they agreed. Students clapped, yelled and stomped their feet in approval.

The Arizona Learns program is the state's evaluation system for K-12 schools. It measures improvements in the percentage of students passing the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standard) test and graduation/dropout rates while accounting for growth in enrollment.  

The Arizona Learns Achievement Profiles track Arizona schools overall performance each year and identifies schools as Excelling, Highly Performing, Performing Plus, Performing, Underperforming, Failing to Meet Academic Standards or Pending.

"The expectation for students enrolled at this school is high. The curriculum is built around the notion that the students will all move on and enroll and succeed in college," said Jamie Leopold, Wildcat School governing board member.

She said many students are struggling when they enroll. Upon enrollment one student confided to his teachers his inability to read while another admitted to never turning in an assignment or any form of homework.

Despite those odds, students at Wildcat School markedly increased their performance on state assessments and various other measures of school performance and student performance over the last two years in order to achieve the improved label.

The number of students meeting or exceeding the Arizona Standards has grown by approximately 20 percent over that two-year period, in order to meet the criteria for the Performing Plus status.

Through its collaboration with UA, students at the Wildcat School have access to science and research resources at the UA campus and Wildcat School faculty work with UA College of Education graduate students who help with curriculum planning and teaching skills.

"What we learned by applying at the Wildcat School, we will share academically with other universities to apply elsewhere. It is applied, live research," dean of the UA College of Education Ron Marx said.   

The Wildcat School also counts on 50-plus UA Project SOAR students who work with students at risk of academic failure and with their families to promote personal and academic success through academic support, skill building, leadership development, parent education and social and personal interaction.

"Classes are flexible. If a student is excelling they don't have to stay in that class, they can move ahead," said Lina Susee, director of the Wildcat School. "Also, if a student isn't doing so well, we double-dose them, meaning, we assess their needs and add additional classes as needed to make sure they do not fall behind."

The establishment of the Wildcat School was made possible by the Helios Foundation and Bill Estes, Jr. who Marx said believed "that every child must be successful for the country to be successful."

"Bill believed that every student should have the dream to go to college and should be able to go to college. He also believed that for business to be successful, the work force must be trained and educated," said, Shirley Estes, wife of Bill Estes, Jr., a retired first grade teach and a UA College of Education alumna.

Marx spoke to the students and promised to look for them when they graduate in four years.

He assured the students that they would be able to afford college through initiatives such as the Arizona Assurance program.

Arizona Assurance is a UA financial aid program that increases Arizona residents' access to higher education by enabling students to earn undergraduate degrees in four years, without accumulating significant financial debt.

"We have your names and look forward to seeing you walk across Main Gate as freshmen," said Marx.