21 Tulsa County Schools Make Needs Improvement List

Thursday, August 23rd 2007, 3:24 pm

By: News On 6

More Oklahoma schools are not making the grade. The list of low performing schools is out and 15 more schools than last year need to improve test scores or attendance. News On 6 education reporter Ashli Sims reports here in Green Country, it's no longer just Tulsa Public Schools that's struggling.

As Green Country students begin a new year, educators are looking back at last year's test scores, and some are not pleased with what they see. Two suburban school districts missed the mark for the first time this year. Despite most students excelling in math and reading, Jenks Middle School is on the list because its special education students were not so successful. In a statement, Jenks attributed the problem to a "personnel issue" that the district "has since remedied." Bixby's superintendent says Central Elementary school is also on the list, because of special education students math scores.

Union's Intermediate High School is in its second year on the federal needs improvement list. A spokesperson for the district says they are anxious to find out who missed the mark so they can develop strategies to improve.

Tulsa Public Schools is the largest district in the state, and has the most schools on the needs improvement list. It added two more schools this year, Jackson Elementary School and Wilson Middle School. In fact, almost half of all Tulsa middle schools are listed as low performing. Tulsa's school board voted to close Monroe Middle School because it was in its sixth year on the list. They sent those students to Gilcrease this year, but that school also needs improvement.

Six of the nine Tulsa high schools are also on the list. The numbers are concerning, but so is a trend among schools labeled low-performing. With the exception of the two new ones, all of the Tulsa schools on this year's list have been on it for at least four years in a row. So while the goal of No Child Left Behind is to identify struggling schools and bring them up to speed, in TPS that doesn't seem to be happening.
Tulsa Public Schools is planning to dispute several schools on the list, so they could end up with fewer considered low performing, and the state says the bar was raised in 2007, so students had to score almost 150 points higher to be considered satisfactory.

The schools not meeting state benchmarks in areas like test scores and attendance in Tulsa are:

Academy Central Elementary School

Central High School

Clinton Middle School

Daniel Webster High School

East Central High School

Foster Middle School

Gilcrease Intermediate School

Hamilton Middle School

Houston Elementary School

Jackson Elementary School

Madison Middle School

McLain High School For Science And Technology