Stephanie Ong, an eighth-grader at Kyrene Del Pueblo Middle School in Chandler is the national first place winner of the SIFMA Foundation's InvestWrite student essay competition in the middle school division.

Yet another example of East Valley schools policy we lampoon as the “Make the Principal’s Job Easier Act” came via the case of Mesa Mountain View High School graduate Amanda Tecson.

Cris Cicconi, the band and musical director at Power Ranch Elementary School, says Catie Davies is “the kind of student every teacher dreams of having.”

Students at Kyrene’s Aprende Middle School are grieving after the loss of an eighth-grade student whose body was found Sunday on campus.

Students at Kyrene’s Aprende Middle School are grieving after the loss of an eighth-grade student whose body was found Sunday on campus.

For the first time in two decades, freshmen will roam the halls of Mesa's Dobson High School when classes start in August.

Tempe Elementary School District administrators are asking for the school board’s OK to explore making another neighborhood elementary school a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade campus.

May 2, 2005

Jesus Espinoza’s dream became easier to reach Wednesday — a night when he also became a role model for students whose first language isn’t English.

Tempe’s Laird Elementary School will add two sixthgrade classes in the fall and gradually phase in seventh and eighth grades.

For Gilbert parents, checking in on their children’s school progress has become a snap.

The Mesa district needs to move forward with transitioning ninth-graders to the high schools in two phases to keep the move manageable and efficient, if the governing board approves the plan, Superintendent Mike Cowan told the board members Tuesday evening.

Reading scores for fourth and eighth grade students held mostly steady last year, with improvements seen in a handful of states and among low-income students.

Eight East Valley students have qualified for the Arizona Grammar Bowl. They will go head-to-head with 16 other eighth and ninth graders in a Jeopardy-style contest April 14 at Grand Canyon University.

Looking for an active way to keep the kids busy?

San Tan Learning Center, a public kindergarten-through-eighth-grade charter school in Gilbert, has opened enrollment for its new middle school for the 2012-13 school year. Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms will feature the standards-based Common Core curriculum and incorporate the learning community model — a learning format in which a small group of students take a common set of courses together and share a common academic experience. Admissions forms are available at http://evtnow.com/2ip or by calling (480) 222-0811.

All Higley Unified School District kindergarten through eighth-grade school offices are open Monday for enrollment.