The Arizona Youth Tobacco Survey is a series of biannual school-based tobacco-focused surveys first implemented in the spring of 2000. The survey is designed to help monitor trends in tobacco use among public school students in grades 6 through 12 and to compare changes in rates over time. The survey also collects data on topics including: tobacco use; tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes and beliefs; access to tobacco products; exposure to environmental tobacco smoke; initiation and cessation; influence of family, friends and the media; and social, school and community interventions.

Adult tobacco use represents an important and ongoing morbidity, mortality and health care cost problem. The Arizona Department of Health Services Office of Tobacco Education and Prevention Program has been working since 1996 to reduce tobacco use in Arizona. This report presents data from the Adult Tobacco Survey on adult tobacco use prevalence rates, cessation behaviors, and Arizonan’s beliefs and attitudes about smoking hazards and tobacco policies. It also provides trends over time on Arizonans tobacco use and other related behaviors, using comparable data from surveys conducted previously in 1996, 1999, and 2002.

This document is intended to help schools identify the strengths and limitations of their instructional practices and organizational conditions. All Arizona schools will use this document to assess their overall performance. The document serves three primary functions: 1) as a blueprint to communicate the high expectations of the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction for all Arizona schools; 2) as a self-assessment tool to be used by the educational community at the local level; and 3) as an external assessment tool to be used by ADE School Improvement Teams. This document may also be used in other appropriate external assessment activities. The document is not to be used for staff evaluation. Instead, the focus is placed on assessing the effectiveness of the school for the purpose of sustained improvement.

This instrument is intended to help schools at all levels of performance assess the strengths and limitations of their instructional practices and organizational conditions. It serves three primary functions:
1. as a blueprint to communicate the high expectations of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for all Arizona schools;
2. as an internal self-assessment tool to be used by the educational community at the local level; and
3. as an external assessment tool to be used by ADE Solutions Teams.