State providing more funds in support of Tulsa's summer school programs

At Thursday’s Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting, State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced that TPS will receive an additional $180,000 to support the “Ready. Set. Summer!” day camp-style summer school for elementary and middle school students that starts in June.

As of Thursday morning, about 7,200 students are enrolled in the program, with enrollment still open at 18 of the 24 host sites, district officials said.

Although participation is open to every TPS elementary and middle school student, recruitment efforts have specifically targeted children who tested at or below the 30th percentile on the reading portion of the MAP tests administered earlier this year.

The additional funds will be used to help provide targeted small-group reading instruction to students projected to score at a below-basic level on the English language arts portion of the Oklahoma State Testing Program.

Since its launch in 2021, TPS has primarily relied on federal COVID-19 relief money to pay for “Ready. Set. Summer!” With those funds scheduled to sunset later this year, district officials acknowledged to the Oklahoma State Board of Education that conversations are underway to determine whether the programming can continue in 2025 and, if so, how the district will be able to pay for it.

“We have serious questions that we’re asking ourselves, since these were funded with ESSER (Elementary and Secondary Students Emergency Relief) dollars,” TPS Superintendent Ebony Johnson said. “We will have to look at the budget to see what will work for our families and students in the future.”

The State Department of Education is also providing TPS with an additional $200,000 for credit-recovery efforts. The district will host a four-week credit-recovery boot camp at each of its high schools over the summer and is in the process of standing up a continuous recovery model that would serve at least 150 students.

During the 2023-24 school year, 1,657 TPS high school students participated in credit-recovery efforts.

“We will continue relentless outreach to our students throughout the school year so we can intervene proactively when students get off track due to barriers such as non-attendance, poor performance or other reasons that might cause a student to drop out,” Acting Deputy Superintendent Kathy Dodd said.

During and after the meeting, Walters praised TPS’ efforts and said he was “confident” that the district’s scores on the Oklahoma State Testing Program would be improved compared to the previous year’s.

Among the demands placed on the district to retain its accreditation and avoid a state takeover was that at least half of its students test at a basic level or better on the English language arts portion of the Oklahoma State Testing Program.

“We’re very excited about what Tulsa is doing with their summer school programs,” Walters said. “We’re very excited to give almost $400,000 for them to continue to turn that district around. We’ll be making future announcements about other districts, but I believe that it’s essential to get student outcomes back on track by taking summer months to target students who are far behind academically, pair the best teachers with them and help get them caught up.”

One of the other demands placed on the district was that all of its teachers and site administrators be trained in a state-approved science of reading course. During Thursday’s presentation before the board, Johnson said that goal has been met.

“We’re very proud of the 100% completion rate,” she said.

Thursday’s meeting was the first with a new policy in place regarding public comment. With attendance often exceeding the space available at the Oliver Hodge Building, the meeting agenda included notice that speakers would be drawn at random.

Prior to Thursday’s meeting, speaker slots were limited 10 people and made available on a first-come, first-served basis, prompting some people to set up camp outside the building the night before in the hopes of getting to speak or even to get a seat in the room.

After the meeting, Walters told reporters that the decision to change public comment structure was due to paid out-of-state activists “hijacking” the board’s meetings. However, when asked to substantiate those claims, he said the presence of tents and signs outside the building was sufficient proof and declined to provide any additional documentation.

“I will share that information when I’m ready to share that information,” he said.

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