Tulsa Public Schools officials noticed a trend in the latest Oklahoma school report cards.
The lower a school’s grade was, the higher its share of students considered economically disadvantaged tended to be. At nearly all schools getting an "F" on their state report card, 90% of students or more are considered economically disadvantaged.
Superintendent Deborah Gist said TPS isn’t writing off those students.
"When we show a correlation with poverty, this is not about capability or belief in our kids. Quite the opposite. We are totally confident that our students are capable and that we can serve them and they can achieve at high levels," Gist said.
Deputy Superintendent Paula Shannon said the correlation offers important policy insight.
"It’s not an excuse, but it does help us understand that there are many variables outside of our control, and it’s one of the reasons that modernizing the weights of the funding formula, for example, is incredibly important," Shannon said.
Shannon said a funding formula tweak considered last year would have resulted in an additional $22 million for TPS.
"Those are the kinds of dollars that help us do things like provide more wrap-around services for our students, enhance opportunities for acceleration of learning and so forth," Shannon said.
Shannon noted several TPS schools in low-income areas improved from "F’s" to "D’s"from 2018 to 2019.
