Camp Mohave Elementary School
Camp Mohave Elementary School
Mohave Valley Elementary School District | Fort Mohave, AZ
Bright Spot: Turning Family Engagement and Data Into Literacy Gains at Camp Mohave
In the rural community of Fort Mohave, Camp Mohave Elementary School has a simple but powerful rallying cry:
“Why not our kids?”
It’s a question that has transformed the school and the community surrounding it over the past five years.
Today, Camp Mohave boasts national recognition as one of America’s Best Schools, an A+ School of Excellence designation, and a spot on Stanford’s Education Recovery Scorecard as one of just two Arizona schools recognized for sustained academic recovery. That recognition reflects a multi-year recovery story.
In 2019, Camp Mohave’s third-grade ELA passing rate was 37%, well below the statewide passing rate in Arizona (46%) and below Mohave County (41%). By 2022, the school climbed to 51%, well above the state (41%) and county (36%). That progress held through 2024, when 50% of Camp Mohave third graders passed compared to 39% statewide. Like many schools across Arizona, Camp Mohave saw its passing rate dip in 2025, reflecting broader trends. The long arc, however, remains one of recovery and steady progress since 2019.
Perhaps most impressive among Camp Mohave’s gains is what’s happening for the school’s economically-disadvantaged students. At a school where 84% of students come from economically-disadvantaged homes, the school maintains a narrow gap in assessment scores. In 2024, 45% of Camp Mohave's economically-disadvantaged third graders passed, outpacing Arizona's 27% passing rate for economically-disadvantaged students and exceeding the state's 39% average for all students.
What’s behind this recovery and steady progress? When Principal Rick Cottrell speaks to what’s driving these gains, he starts with families.
“Six hours a day is not enough to truly build literacy,” Cottrell said. “Most parents want to help. But they don't know how. So if we can communicate something easy for them to do and they can feel successful at, 99.9% of parents are all over it.”
That belief and commitment to family engagement is built into the school’s student learning system. Through its Parent University program, Camp Mohave equips families with concrete strategies to extend literacy development at home and collaborates with parents and families as essential partners in building literacy skills.
Inside the school, the approach is equally student-focused, data-driven, and deliberate. A dedicated data coach helps teachers identify students who need small-group support, looking at class-wide gaps in specific standards, and planning targeted interventions. Readers who are struggling receive dedicated intervention blocks daily in small groups of just two to three students.
According to Superintendent Cole Young, the pieces are coming together and moving in the same direction - curriculum, assessment, instruction, and interventions.
“It’s not a mission,” Young said, “it’s a movement now.”
As Arizona works to scale up key strategies of Arizona Literacy Plan 2030 — including family engagement, coaching, and high-quality data-driven literacy instruction — schools like Camp Mohave are leading the way, showing what’s possible when we do what works and stay the course.
Read On Arizona met with leadership at Camp Mohave Elementary School and the Mohave Valley Elementary School District to learn about the school's approach to literacy. We thank them for their time and celebrate this progress:
- Rick Cottrell, Principal, Camp Mohave Elementary School
- Cole Young, Superintendent, Mohave Valley Elementary School District