McLain High Undergoing Makeover
Seeking to Boost Performance of North Tulsa Schools

 

By ANDREA EGER
Tulsa World

 

TULSA—Some 3,200 students at McLain High School of Science & Technology and seven other schools in north Tulsa could soon have longer school days and an army of tutors to assist them.
At a special school board meeting Monday morning. Supt. Keith Ballard said he is pursuing a school-turn-around partnership with a Harvard University-based education research and development laboratory called Education Innovation Laboratory, or EdLabs.
The school board will also be asked to consider moving seventh-graders out of the McLain High facility, which currently houses both a junior high and a high school, and into their own seventh-grade center.
Board Member Lana Turner Addison, who represents much of north Tulsa, said the community will be skeptical after so many failed attempts to reform schools there, but that she thinks circumstances are ripe for success.
‘Real This Time?’
“The problem is,” she said, “will they trust that it’s real this time?”
“Some of the plans that were written in past years were great plans, but they were not sustained, even for a year, sometimes,” the school board member continued.
“This is sustainable, because we are looking not only at plans, but at how we can fund those plans, and we’ve got a great leader in Dr. Ballard, who will ensure it’s there.”
A public forum about the partnership with EdLabs is planned for 6 p.m. on Monday, March 18, at McLain High (4929 N. Peoria Ave.).
Board Member Addison said, because parent participation is so low in many of the schools she represents, the school district needs to establish a parent center in north Tulsa to better engage parents and support them.
“The time is now,” Board Member Addison said, acknowledging that her community will have a lot of questions about just how committed the district is to this latest school reform initiative.
“There have been too many promises made,” she continued. “The data shows us that this is the greatest need, and we have not been able to make any significant gains to close the academic achievement gap.”
‘Dramatic’
Headed by noted Harvard economist Roland Fryer, Edlabs is dedicated to eliminating the racial and socioeconomic difference in education achievement.
Over the last three years, Dr. Fryer and his team of researchers have been working with some of the lowest-performing public schools in Houston and Denver to see whether techniques that have worked in high-performing charter schools can also raise scores in traditional public schools.
Others
Besides McLain High, the other sites under consideration for the partnership with EdLabs are Anderson, Burroughs, Gilcrease, Penn, Springdale and Whitman Elementary Schools.
The schools were selected based on their level of academic deficiency.
Tulsa officials said it would cost an additional $2,000 per student to fund and extended-day program, as well as 100 paid, full-time tutors, but community donors have pledged significant support.
April Vote
For the 3,200 students currently in the eight schools, additional costs are estimated at $6.4 million annually.
Beyond securing the financing, Supt. Ballard said explaining the proposal and garnering community support will be crucial between now and when the school board is asked to vote in April.
“They do need to know what’s going on because we will be making dramatic changes,” the superintendent said.
“It’s not about changing a name. It’s about going into the very bottom of this thing. It’s hard, grinding-it-out work. It takes a total commitment.”
Dr. Fryer was in Tulsa last month for an “exploratory” visit with the school board but has been in talks with district administrators for several months.
He issued a statement Monday, saying that his organization is “impressed with the reforms that are already under way in Tulsa public schools.”
“In the coming months,” he went on, “we will be guiding the district as it works to implement the school turnaround strategies that EdLabs used to generate significant achievement gains in Houston’s Apollo Schools, and hope this partnership will play a critical role in ensuring that all Tulsa students have access to the great education they need and deserve.”
Talia Shaull, chief human capital officer for the Tulsa Public School District, noted that EdLabs has had proven success in significantly improving mathematics scores and is focused on doing the same in reading achievement with data-driven, “high-level” research-based methods.
‘Challenge’
Principals and teachers at the eight affected schools were informed of the partnership proposal last week. Administrators told the school board that principals were particularly “subdued” because they learned that they would have to reapply for their positions, but the jury is still out on teacher sentiment.
Reassurance
Supt. Ballard offered some reassurance to Tulsa teachers, saying they would be treated differently than educators in Denver, where EdLabs replaced hundreds of teachers after the firm arrived.
“This is gong to be different than EdLabs’ work in Denver in that there will be no teaching staff turnover, and that’s because of our teacher evaluation,” he said.
“No one’s job is in jeopardy unless it is under the normal evaluation process.”
Officials also said the recommendation “ties in” to the efforts of a community advisory committee that was formed last year after the school district fended off talk of a state takeover at McLain High.
“Let’s keep in mind that McLain has been a tremendous challenge for the district,” said longtime Board Member Gary Percefull.
“A year ago, there was a lot of rhetoric being thrown around about ‘takeover,’ and Dr. Ballard was able to get that turned around to a ‘turnaround partnership.’
“For more than two decades, we have struggled to get the right programs and support and services packaged together.”
‘Game-Changer’
Board Member Bobbie Gray said she likes the fact that accountability would be tied to someone so driven to succeed.
“Roland Fryer would be coming in here to change the McLain feeder pattern,” she said. “Without its success, he can’t say that he’s successful.”
Board Member Leigh Goodson called the proposal a “potential game-changer for all of Tulsa.”
She called on the school system to engage with the city of Tulsa and any other organization that could assist the district’s efforts to overhaul an entire feeder pattern.
Supt. Ballard responded that he would begin doing so right away.
Oliver Wallace, assistant superintendent for secondary schools, told the board that the proposal to create a separate seventh-grade center in the McLain feeder pattern would address overcrowding and students’ academic deficiencies.
The proposed center, which the board also will be asked to vote on in April, would be housed in one of the former elementary school facilities in the area that was shuttered through the Project Schoolhouse consolidation effort two years ago.