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The Tulsa Beacon

 

Ray Carter

Center for Independent Journalism

Ray Carter is the director of OCPA’s Center for Independent Journalism.

Jenks Sign

Jenks’ reading skills drop? Only 44 percent are reading proficient

Tulsa Beacon

The Jenks Public Schools district has been identified as the best school in Oklahoma in a national review, despite that same evaluation finding less than half of students at the district read at grade level. In no other state were less than half of students proficient in reading at a state’s “best” school. The website…

Forced viewing of anti-Trump film prompts OU lawsuit

Tulsa Beacon

A lawsuit filed by a former University of Oklahoma women’s volleyball player reveals that scholarship athletes were required to watch and discuss a political documentary that compares former President Donald Trump and his supporters with violent segregationists in the 1960s. Because she expressed disagreement with that premise, Kylee McLaughlin’s lawsuit said she was subsequently ostracized…

Oklahoma history books mentioned 1921 for decades

Tulsa Beacon

A common theme of commemorations of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was that the event was swept under the rug, particularly in public schools, for most of the past 100 years. Some officials say the way public schools have handled the 1921 massacre provides another glimpse of how students can be shortchanged by a one-size-fits-all…

Promoting racism: Author calls white people ‘racist’

Tulsa Beacon

Women and minorities who achieve success and obtain positions of power are not evidence that the United States is not a racist, patriarchal society dedicated to white supremacy and male domination, according to Robin DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility. “Systems of oppression are deeply embedded in the foundation and fabric of a society and…

State movie subsidies are a net drain on Oklahoma’s revenues

Tulsa Beacon

Oklahoma lawmakers are considering a dramatic increase in state film subsidies, potentially funneling as much as $50 million a year to filmmakers, and have even proclaimed the subsidy program a “magical” economic-development tool. But a recent independent review of the program, by the state’s Incentive Evaluation Commission, shows the film-subsidy program is a net drain…

State School Board group: Force girls to compete vs. boys

Tulsa Beacon

The Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA) has called on lawmakers to require female athletes to compete against male athletes who identify as transgender, saying a proposed ban on transgender athletes in girls’ sports “jeopardizes local control” because it would overrule “the policy school districts have adopted” through the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association “regarding…

Nearly half of Tulsa students are flunking in at least one class

Tulsa Beacon

For almost a year now, several major Oklahoma school districts have not provided full-time, in-person instruction to students. Parents and state officials alike have wondered how that is impacting academic progress. A midyear report recently released by Tulsa Public Schools provides the answer in that district. Nearly every other student in Tulsa schools was recently…

OSDE urged the use of Southern Poverty Law Center

Tulsa Beacon

During the week of the 2020 presidential election, the official Facebook page of the Oklahoma State Department of Education encouraged teachers to use materials produced by an organization that critics say has actively worked to brand orthodox Christians and mainstream conservative organizations as “hate groups.” On Nov. 3, 2020, the Oklahoma State Department of Education…

‘Boomer Sooner’ called ‘racist’ in mandatory OU class

Tulsa Beacon

Each year at sporting events and other school gatherings, supporters of the University of Oklahoma routinely chant “Boomer Sooner.” But this year, a mandatory diversity training program informs OU students that “Boomer Sooner” is steeped in racism and can represent a form of oppression. “Settlers called ‘boomers’ believed they had the right to settle these…

Getting a diploma doesn’t prove students really learned

Tulsa Beacon

In a court filing, an Oklahoma school district has declared the issuance of either a passing grade or a high school diploma is not—“and never has been”—an indicator that a student mastered state-mandated core courses. Lone Grove Public Schools also stated that any court order tethering a high-school diploma to mastery of high-school core course…