COVID-19’s impact is starting to show up in some of the performance data collected about Tulsa Public Schools’ student body.
At Monday night’s school board meeting, Deputy Superintendent Paula Shannon and Director of Data Strategy Sean Berkstresser walked board members through TPS’ annual midyear performance report, which had to adjust its metrics to accommodate for the pandemic’s impact.
“We have had to re-think what measures we do use to inform what we’re seeing across our schools,” Berkstresser said.
In previous years, for example, the report would include standardized test scores from the spring semester and student attendance measured by physical bodies in school buildings — two criteria now unavailable thanks to the pandemic’s arrival in March 2020.
Instead, the district measured attendance by the number of assignments completed and incorporated students’ online engagement as an additional key data point.
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According to the report, in an average week, 82 percent of Tulsa students are regularly logging in online and participating, with higher rates among the older elementary grades.
The district’s cumulative student attendance rate through early February is 80.7 percent — a drop of more than 10 percentage points from 2019-20.
The attendance rate is a factor in the district’s higher dropout rate. With about 1,800 students across all grades classified as dropouts, the district’s current dropout rate is more than double that in recent prepandemic years.
Shannon said the figure has climbed in part due to nonattendance, as it includes students who have not completed an assignment or logged on for 10 consecutive instructional days. Those students are automatically dropped from a school’s roster in accordance with state regulations.
“It’s a moving number,” Berkstresser said. “When we make contact with the kids, it changes. What often happens when we reach out is that we find out that they have moved to another district or another state.”
Along with a higher dropout rate, the number of TPS students failing at least one class has climbed exponentially. At the end of the first quarter, the number of students across all grades with two or more failing grades jumped from 3 percent in 2019-20 to 31 percent in 2020-21.
Additionally, when the board voted in January to extend the fall semester by two weeks, 47 percent of TPS students had at least one failing grade — triple the rate from the end of the fall 2019 semester. That extra time was enough for almost 2,000 students to raise their grades enough to finish the semester without any failing grades.
“We are seeing that learning differences clearly matter,” Shannon said.
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Throwback Tulsa: Portrait of John Hope Franklin hung at the state Capitol on this day in 2012
Throwback Tulsa: Portrait of John Hope Franklin hung at the state Capitol in 2012
The most popular choice for a newly consolidated north Tulsa school
Dr. John Hope Franklin, pictured here at a 1997 dinner honoring him at the Central Library, was the most popular choice for renaming a newly consolidated school in north Tulsa.
Kelley Blakney, interim principal of the new school and a member of the committee, said the second-most popular choices were Maya Angelou and Martin Luther King Jr.
"It was clear that it is important to our community that the school be named for a Tulsan," she said.
John Hope Franklin's father, attorney B.C. Franklin
Following the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, attorney B.C. Franklin (right) set up his law office in a tent. At left is I.H. Spears, Franklin's law partner. The identity of the woman in the center is unknown. Franklin successfully challenged a Tulsa city ordinance that mandated that the Greenwood District be rebuilt with fire-proof materials. The ordinance essentially would have kept many black residents from rebuilding after the riot. B.C. Franklin was the father of the late historian John Hope Franklin.
Born Jan. 2, 1915 in Rentiesville, Oklahoma
John Hope Franklin is pictured here as he tips his hat to the crowd as Mildred Burkhalter (right), the mayor of Rentiesville introduces him on Friday, March 12, 1999.
Franklin returned to his hometown, where he was born Jan. 2, 1915, to be honored with two highway signs and the renaming of the major road through the town of Rentiesville.
John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Center
"He had a tremendous influence," said Julius Pegues, chairman of the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation (pictured). "You could not come away from a conversation with John Hope Franklin and not be a better person for it."
Pegues said he remembered Franklin's return to Booker T. Washington for a lecture when Pegues was a student there in the 1950s.
"He was a tremendous speaker," Pegues said. "He motivated us, and he inspired us to do bigger and better things. He was just a great person."
John Hope Franklin's son, John W. Franklin
John Hope Franklin's son, John W. Franklin (pictured at right), recently retired as the senior manager of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He spent nearly 30 years with the Smithsonian Institution.
“When we’re dealing with reconciliation on slavery, the families who owned slaves know and will acknowledge they were slave owners. That is what is missing in the Tulsa situation,” Franklin said. “There has only been the discussion of survivors.
“If you don’t have other voices, it has no context. As African Americans, we learn from both sides.”
Author of many books
Dela Sewall, cousin of John Hope Franklin, is pictured here holding some of his books at the Suburban Acres Library. From left to right: "My Life and an Era: the Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin;" "Race and History: Selected Essays 1938–1988;" and "George Washington Williams: a Biography"
Wrote and edited two autobiographies, for his father and himself
John Hope Franklin, pictured here in 1997 signing a book for a former Tulsa classmate Mildred Bailey at Central Library, wrote two autobiographies: "My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin," which he edited in 1997, and "Mirror to America. The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin," which he wrote in 2005.
1947 book “From Slavery to Freedom”
His 1947 book, “From Slavery to Freedom” is the seminal work in African American history. Franklin is pictured here in 1997 in front of the exhibit featuring him at Central Library.
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995
In 1995, President Bill Clinton awarded John Hope Franklin the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Franklin is pictured here speaking in 1997 at Central Library.
Known for both gentleness and courage, Franklin liked to tell a story about something that happened the night before he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995.
Franklin said he was standing in a hotel lobby when a man handed him some keys and asked him to get his car. “I patiently explained to him that I was a guest in the hotel, as I presumed he was, and I had no idea where his automobile was,” Franklin said. “And, in any case, I was retired.”
1997 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award winner
Pictured here, Jim Watson announces the winner of the 1997 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award winner, John Hope Franklin, and shows off one of his books, "From Slavery To Freedom."
2004 Oklahoma Governor's Arts Award recipient
Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry presents the Governor's Arts Award to John Hope Franklin in 2004. He is pictured here shaking hands with Oklahoma Secretary of State Susan Savage (right) prior to the Dec. 1, 2004 ceremony.
John Hope Franklin Boulevard in Tulsa
Multiple sites in Tulsa already bear John Hope Franklin's name including John Hope Franklin Boulevard, pictured here on Oct. 2, 2010.
John Hope Franklin Park
John Hope Franklin Park, completed in October 2010, pays homage to Franklin, Tulsa's most acclaimed scholar, and commemorates the 1921 massacre that devastated the surrounding black neighborhoods.
The park was built with state, local and private money and is to be maintained through a nonprofit group.
1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission
Pictured here in 1997, Scott Ellsworth (left) listens as John Hope Franklin speaks to the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission at the Greenwood Cultural Center.
In 1997, the Race Riot Commission began gathering oral histories and decided the three most likely places were Newblock Park, Oaklawn Cemetery and Rolling Oaks Cemetery, which in 1921 (and for decades after) was known as Booker T. Washington Cemetery.
More recently, the commission continues to search for mass graves as the 100-year anniversary of the massacre approaches.
John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park groundbreaking
One of Franklin’s last public appearances was in Tulsa for the dedication of the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park in October 2008. Franklin is pictured shaking hands with then-Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor at the event.
Death in March 25, 2009 at age 94
Click here to read John Hope Franklin's obituary.
Franklin is shown speaking in March 2009 to the congregation at the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Reconciliation Commemoration service at the Mount Zion Baptist Church on Sunday, June 3, 2000.
