Tulsa Public Schools is again studying itself. There are all kinds of administrators like chief of academics, director of data strategy and chief design and innovation officer working to produce different outcomes, yet the numbers remain the same.
The proportion of students deemed college and career-ready has remained unchanged for the last three years, according to Samuel Hardiman writing for the Tulsa World.
Only a third of TPS students meet the bar. Fourteen percent of black TPS students are deemed ready. Hispanic students, who make up the district’s largest demographic group, are 25 percent ready and 57 percent of white students met the readiness bar.
College and career readiness is a national standard based on a SAT score between 910 and 950. The maximum score is 1,600.
Why this is important is that for the first time in years there are job opportunities for those who are ready. On September 20, it was reported that the number of Americans filing applications for new unemployment benefits fell to a new 49-year low.
Jobless claims have remained low in recent years as the labor market continues to tighten and managers face difficulty finding qualified employees according to the Wall Street Journal. The unemployment rate has been hovering near an 18-year low in recent months.
The Dow and S&P 500 also hit record highs last Thursday. Nine of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher. At 11:29 p.m. on September 20, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 234.42 points, at 26,640. This is striking since the Dow never reached 18,000 during the 8 years of the Obama administration. Yes, America is back in business and Tulsa students need to be taught how to grab their part of this prosperity.
As the Tulsa World reported, someone who understands the new future of public education is Mr. Shane Keim, Hale High School’s athletic director and freshman English teacher. He is also a Hale alumnus and part of their design team. He thinks (according to the ) that students struggling with their perception of their school is more a district problem than a Nathan Hale issue.
Mr. Keim sees Hale on “the rise” with more students involved in athletics and engaged with the school. Keim thinks the rigor is fine, but that it’s time to re-evaluate the high school model. The model is old enough that we need to take a look at it and make sure it’s working. In the case of TPS and the low readiness percentage the model doesn’t work. Simply changing the names of our schools by adding academy or technology to their names is absurd.
As TPS studies reams of data the comment was made “our students do not feel uniformly valued or welcome in our schools.”
It goes on “while students spoke of how good teachers had positively changed their lives, teachers aren’t always focused on building relationships with them,” according to the surveys.
I think all of us can remember a great teacher. A person who made a difference by making you want to learn and excel. It was too bad that you may have only spent one class with that good teacher.
Well, Mr. Keim says maybe the high school model needs some update. Since the SAT score is primarily math and English, why not keep your English and math teacher for all four years of high school? If we want to build relationships what better way than a four-year experience with a great teacher verses something less?