Marcos de Niza High School

Marcos de Niza High School excels in diversity. Our 30-year-old campus boasts the largest multicultural student population of any of the seven schools comprising the Tempe Union High School District. Moreover, as the sole school serving the students of the town of Guadalupe, a unique Yaqui and Hispanic community, we are unmatched in the district in cultural status and richness. Ours is the largest Indian Education Department and one of the two largest ESL Programs. We also host the largest Special Education Department in the District. The ethnic breakdown of our student population is 4% Asian, 10% African American, 10% American Indian, 27% Hispanic, and 49% Caucasian. Our students endow the Marcos de Niza campus with a longstanding tradition of respect and achievement. On the average, 80% of our graduates go on to higher education, including state and out of state universities, and two year colleges. In addition, many of our students continue technical training.

During the 2005-06 school year, 520 out-of-boundary students attend Marcos under the Open Enrollment Law. Marcos de Niza is accredited through North Central Association - CASI (Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement). We are in the third - year cycle of the Performance-Based Accreditation model. The Target Area Goal areas include Reading, Mathematics, and Responsibility. MdN's AZ Learns label is Highly Performing. The dropout rate is 2.1% and graduation rate 96%.

Our school serves over 2000 students in Grades 9-12 in Tempe, AZ. There are 180 instructional days during the school year; the average length of the school day is currently 360 minutes excluding lunch. All full-time teachers have at least 200 minutes of scheduled planning/conference time per week. Staff at Marcos includes 4 administrators, 119 teachers, 40 other professional staff, and 19 teacher aides. Two staff members hold doctoral degrees and 79 staff have Master's degrees, of which 59 have ten or more years of experience. Pupil to Professional Staff ratio is 17 to 1.

The first annual Arizona Department of Education's Spotlight on Success Award given by Superintendent Tom Horne. The award recognizes growth in reading and math achievement over the last three years. MdN was the only 9-12 school to receive this recognition.
Winner of the "After the Bell" award by AIA in recognition of the efforts of the Rachel's Challenge Club to make a difference behind the scenes.
National recognition for success with Native American students, sending more on to college than any other public school in the nation.
Selected as National Best Buddies Club Charter of the year
One of three finalists for the 2004 - 2005 Tony Komadina Outstanding Girls' Athletic Program Award.
Academic Decathlon qualified for the state competition where they won the "Rookie Team of the Year" award.

The organization and philosophy of Marcos de Niza includes block scheduling, team teaching, and departmentalized classrooms. Instructional Programs include honors classes, advanced placement, special education, ESL, Peak Performance Center, dual enrollment with community colleges, interdisciplinary programs, JROTC, and gifted education. Programs offered at Marcos that coordinate and work interactively to help Native American students include Title I, ESL, JTPA, Summer Bridge Program, Centro de Amistad Mira Mira Project, Project Infinity, Town of Guadalupe/TUHSD Partnership, a Coordinator of Intercultural Fairs, and the Title IX Program.

Marcos has active and successful drama, music, art and journalism programs. There are several highly successful cooperative work programs: ICE (Industrial Education), DECA (Marketing), and HERO (Consumer Science). Saturday School lets students enroll in English and Math classes in a block schedule, and Evening School provides an opportunity to earn credits in the evening. The Work Bridge Program provides special education students an opportunity to develop on-the-job skills. Our Career Center and full-time Career Tech helps students benefit from Career Day and Job-shadowing experiences. Among our 41 athletic teams are two recent state champions as well as several regional winners. In addition, our students participate in a large number of clubs and extracurricular activities.

The MdN Site Council consists of school administrators, non-certified employees, teachers, parents, community members, and students. The Site Council’s areas of involvement include the school improvement plan, staff evaluation/instructional strategies, school renovations, curriculum development, school safety issues, and parent/educator relations.

The school has Math and Reading/Writing Literacy Councils whose members serve as instructional leaders within their own departments. Marcos de Niza High School believes that all students should receive a foundation in a range of disciplines that results in a core of common knowledge. This is best expressed in our mission statement and philosophy.