Student Engagement, Discourse, and Achievement Rise at Arizona Public Charter Network

Walk into a fourth grade classroom at Odyssey Preparatory Academy in Arizona, and you’re bound to hear a lot of students talking. But this isn't a bad thing. In fact, it's exactly the point.

Charter Network Snapshot

• 3,300 students K–12
• 47% Hispanic, 40% white, 5% African American, 5% multiple races
• Schools use Wit & Wisdom®, PhD Science®, and Eureka Math²®

“They really want to discuss everything,” said Nicole Woods, the co-principal of the public charter school network’s Goodyear campus in suburban Phoenix. What she finds most striking is “how they speak to each other.”

Woods explained: “The kids are saying: ‘I would like to add onto that.’ Or, ‘Can I provide you feedback?' Or, 'I would like to disagree.'”

These productive, and even diplomatic, conversations are now a core part of the culture at Odyssey Prep, which serves more than 3,300 K–12 students at five campuses in a mix of suburban and rural settings, plus a preschool. 

Woods and other educators largely credit Odyssey Prep’s embrace of the Wit & Wisdom® English language arts curriculum as sparking the shift, with its focus on instructional approaches like the Socratic seminar, in which students ask and answer a series of open-ended questions.

“We’re now back to where we were pre-Covid. So we’ve made up all of that learning loss.”

—Nicole Woods, Co-Principal, Odyssey Preparatory Academy

However, the shift in how students engage in conversations with one another is evident beyond the ELA classroom. In other subjects, such as science, where the PhD Science® curriculum is in use, student discourse also flourishes.

The strong emphasis on speaking and listening skills and deep student engagement comes as all five Odyssey prep campuses now have an ‘A’ rating under the Arizona accountability system. The A through F grades are based on several factors, including student achievement and growth on state assessments, attendance, and readiness for students’ next steps, whether high school, college, or careers.

“We’re now back to where we were pre-Covid,” Woods said of student achievement. “So we’ve made up all of that learning loss.”

The network serves a racially and ethnically diverse mix of students. Forty-seven percent of students are Hispanic, 40 percent are white, 5 percent are African American, and 5 percent are of multiple races. 

With Wit & Wisdom, students also are becoming stronger writers. The prior curriculum the network used did not have a robust writing dimension, the Odyssey educators noted. “Wit & Wisdom is just so rich with the writing component,” Woods said. “I think that's been a huge part of the growth for our ELA as a whole.”

Sachiyo Felton, also a co-principal at Odyssey Prep’s Goodyear campus, said she appreciates how Great Minds curricula facilitate connections for students across disciplines, especially between ELA and science.

PhD Science is a hands-on curriculum rooted in the exploration of authentic scientific phenomena and sparking curiosity as students build knowledge and understanding. Odyssey Prep also adopted and has experienced success with Eureka Math²®, in place at the network since 2022.

Stepping back, Felton said she appreciates the way Great Minds curricula help students make connections with the skills and knowledge they’re developing across subject areas. “The kids are seeing all the curricula as a chance to read, a chance to be a deep thinker, and an opportunity to debate," she said. “And I think that that's really enhancing our kids.”