Tag Archives: Education Tulsa

Oklahoma’s Curriculum Choices

By Dr. Rebecca Pellam, Academic Consultant and Literacy Researcher

How Ineffective Programs Continue to Waste Taxpayer Dollars Post-Strong Readers Act

The recently released Oklahoma State Department of Education’s 2025 Public School Report Cards lay bare a system in distress: a D in academic achievement, with just 26% of students proficient in English Language Arts (ELA) and math, and 30% in science.

Graduation rates stagnate at 82% for the class of 2025—well below the state’s 90% goal—while chronic absenteeism grips 19% of students, earning another D. Academic growth inched up by 3% to 56% across ELA, math, and science, but these marginal gains mask deeper failures. With 697,186 students enrolled statewide and an approved $4 billion budget for FY27, this data demands scrutiny of the choices perpetuating low proficiency, especially in literacy.

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Tulsa Charter School Silences Parents

By David Arnett

Moms for Liberty – Tulsa County is asserting “a serious governance failure” at Tulsa Classical Academy (TCA) as the administration eliminated public comment from its school board meetings. This is a significant departure from the standard practice of publicly funded schools allowing citizen input. As an independent charter district, TCA operates without the standard oversight, electoral accountability or established grievance pathways found in most public school districts. Legislators say this makes openness even more essential – not optional and many are speaking out on the troubling change of procedure.

Tulsa Classical Academy
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Literacy Crisis is a Bureaucracy Problem

By Dr. Rebecca Pellam, Academic Consultant and Literacy Researcher

Debunking the Partisan Myth of the “Southern Surge”

This Sunday morning, as I sipped my coffee and scrolled through the latest headlines, I stumbled across yet another piece framing the “Southern Surge”—the remarkable literacy gains in states like Mississippi and Louisiana—as a red-state triumph over blue-state failures.

As a conservative educator with a passion for teaching kids to read, I’d love to cheer for a partisan win. But let’s be honest: this red-versus-blue narrative is a lazy oversimplification that muddies the real story. It lets Oklahoma off the hook for a literacy crisis that’s left 73% of our third-graders non-proficient in reading (Oklahoma State Department of Education [OSDE], 2023a; National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2022).

This isn’t about politics. It’s about an entrenched bureaucracy that’s squandered $150–250 million over the past decade on outdated, ineffective programs, leaving our kids to struggle while other states soar. Let’s celebrate the Southern Surge’s success by crediting its true drivers—explicit, systematic instruction over politics—and demand Oklahoma learn from it.

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The Real Problem with School Choice

By Jonathan Bartlett

Analysis: “School Choice” is the modern name for school vouchers.  Essentially, the idea is that money for schooling should follow a student wherever they go.  If they go to public school – great!  The public school gets the money.  But it is also fine if they go to a private school.  The private school will just get the money that would have gone to the public school.

Once upon a time I was in favor of this, and there are a lot of conservatives who favor this approach for a number of reasons.  I will also say that most of the criticisms of School Choice being brought out by either the public or the public school system almost completely miss the mark and misunderstand what is happening and what the goal is.  However, there is a deeper criticism of School Choice that I have come to recognize. 

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Sup. Walters Launches Tutoring Investment

By Staff Report

Superintendent Ryan Walters announced a 3,000,000 dollar investment Thursday in high-impact tutoring programs across Oklahoma, designed to accelerate student learning and literacy in both urban and rural school districts. The initiative focuses on providing students with research-based, small-group tutoring aligned with the Science of Reading and the Oklahoma Academic Standards.

“The national decline is unlike anything we have seen. Literacy is the foundation for everything our students learn, the bottom line is: if you can’t read you can’t be successful,” said Superintendent Walters. “By investing in targeted tutoring, we are giving Oklahoma students the tools they need to succeed in school, in their careers, and in life. This is about results, accountability, and making sure every child has the opportunity to thrive.”

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