LOCAL & STATE
John Neal
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Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walter’s campaign against Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) started early and kept building steam in the last half of 2023.
Walters led efforts to downgrade TPS’s accreditation, cause the resignation of the district superintendent, and impose harsh “board orders” on TPS. He continuously threatened a state takeover of the TPS governing board.
But in early 2024, Walters and the Oklahoma State Board of Education (OSBE) began to take a dramatically different public approach to TPS. They praised new Tulsa Superintendent Ebony Johnson’s “laser-like focus” to improve student academic achievement. Johnson developed a comprehensive plan to address the district’s educational objectives established by the state board, and Walters started providing significant state resources to support these efforts.
By the spring of 2024, the Tulsa Public School district was able to document the achievement of goals in all the objectives in Johnson’s monthly reports to the State Board. These achievements reversed the State Board’s negative perception of the Tulsa Public Schools district, which began a discussion among the board about a roll-out of a similar effort for other struggling school districts in the state.
Johnson accomplished this stunning turnaround in just eight months, following her appointment as superintendent in September 2023. In public presentations, she cites her background in north Tulsa schools as a vital influence on her brand of leadership. She graduated from public schools on the northside and became a lifelong educator in the school district, including stints as a principal at McLain High School of Science and Technology and Central High School. Having served as TPS’s Chief Academic Officer since 2020, Johnson was well-prepared for the challenges facing her as superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools.
The Oklahoma Eagle reached out to Superintendent Johnson for comment on this feat.
“In November, Tulsa Public Schools heard from the state board of education about the metrics they intended to use to measure the success of our district,” she said in a statement. “Together, Team Tulsa has moved mountains to accomplish those objectives. I am proud of the work we’ve done already to move 16 schools to an improved status; to train countless teachers and administrators in the science of reading; and become even more transparent with our community about our policies and finances.”
She continued: “But there is more work to do. Student outcomes are our North Star. Tulsa Public Schools, with the support of our community, has worked over the past eight months to make sure nothing stands in the way of what we need to do for our young people. My vision for the future is to ensure that every person and every resource in TPS is focused squarely on that goal.”
Yet, the path forward for Johnson and TPS is steep. The rehabilitation of Tulsa’s reputation is still reversible. Oklahoma has experienced the most significant student learning loss among all states, and Tulsa schools are trailing behind the state average. The spring’s student academic scores, which are crucial for assessing TPS performance, are still pending. This underscores the gravity of the situation and the need for ongoing efforts to improve.
Furthermore, the OSBE has introduced a series of new regulations that significantly raise academic achievement standards. These standards are now linked to state accreditation and apply to the entire state school system. Many of these rules, which Superintendent Walters has referred to as ‘Oklahoma values’, have a direct impact on programs that benefit minorities, such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. They also support controversial state law HB 1775, which restricts ‘implicit bias” training for teachers and limits the teaching of America’s true racial history in various ways.
This news analysis by The Oklahoma Eagle aims to chronicle TPS’s recent successes, outline obstacles Tulsa students and schools face, and provide our readers with the information that will prepare them – and particularly students and families – for the educational journey that lies ahead.
A Rocky Road
Walters initiated attacks on TPS months before becoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He spoke before the OSBE that he later would lead, “demanding” that the state education board downgrade TPS accreditation standing. The case before the board stemmed from a white Memorial High School teacher’s complaint that she had felt discomfort from routine implicit bias training. (See
https://theokeagle.com/2022/07/23/white-memorial-high-school-teacher-griped-that-training-shame-white-people-for-past-offenses-in-history-2/ ) That state board yielded to Walters’ pressure supported by newly minted state law HB 1775 that is under challenge in U.S. federal court in Oklahoma as unconstitutional.
Months later, after assuming the role of state superintendent, Walters launched a ferocious attack on TPS academic performance and its “failing schools.” He justified his singling out of the Tulsa school district among Oklahoma’s many poorly performing school districts by saying the district was “uniquely bad.” He added alleged financial mismanagement to his grievances. While the local school board and citizens rallied to the district’s defense, Walters threatened to revoke TPS accreditation. (See https://theokeagle.com/2023/08/08/state-superintendent-walters-continues-attack-on-tulsa-public-schools/ ) In the fall of 2023, TPS Superintendent Deborah Gist was forced to resign under heavy pressure from Walters and other state actors.
From the beginning of her appointment as interim TPS Superintendent in September, Johnson faced renewed obstacles. In its August 2023 meeting, the OSBE had instructed the TPS district to improve student reading proficiency, upgrade the performance of “failing” schools, and strengthen accounting processes that had led to an embezzlement of school funds in 2022.
In Johnson’s appearance before the state board, the new district superintendent was praised for her “attitude.” Still, State Superintendent Walters criticized Johnson because her plan for district improvement lacked “numbers, data goals, and metrics we can look at.” Walters would later warn Johnson, “Don’t test me.”
At the next State Board meeting in November, the board, without notification to the district, imposed a new set of “board orders” that stiffened and made more specific the required improvements on TPS in the areas of state reading test results, “science of reading” training for teachers, improving select schools’ performance, and implementing financial reforms. Additionally, the education department staff criticized TPS’s performance in several areas. In response, Johnson pointed to TPS’s progress on the 2023 state report card and said the new requirements were unnecessary.
The Turnaround
Superintendent Johnson has begun to reshape the school district with a series of transformative initiatives. They included implementing significant personnel changes in schools and the district administration. In her report to the State Board, Johnson emphasized that these changes were crucial to repositioning the “district school culture and performance.”
In the December State Board meeting, Johnson unveiled a comprehensive plan. The TPS plan encompassed “action steps, new initiatives, metrics, and research-based monitoring implementation strategies.” Johnson assured the State Board that TPS was fully committed to the objectives outlined in the new “board orders” and would offer “no excuses” for academic underperformance. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and the State Board were deeply impressed.
In a video on X, formerly Twitter, Walters praised Johnson’s plan, stating, “Dr. Ebony Johnson has presented an exceptional plan for the future of Tulsa. It’s everything I have been advocating for.” (See https://theokeagle.com/2024/01/11/tps-shakes-up-leadership-in-some-troubled-schools/ )
In successive monthly presentations before the State Board in 2024, Johnson and senior staff showed the board how TPS was realigning its strategies and measurement tools to achieve the goals the State Board had set. Month after month, Johnson charted the educational progress the school district was making, increasing the number of teachers being trained in the science of reading, moving schools out of the failing schools category, and tightening financial controls.
In her progress reports to the board, Johnson also describes the measures the district was taking to redeploy resources to the worst performing schools, providing high dosage tutoring and learning intervention programs to academically underperforming students, and carefully charting the number of students improving in reading ability to achieve the goals for the 2024 spring testing period. The superintendent also shared strategies that TPS is implementing with the board to tackle more challenging problems, provide long-range solutions to chronic absenteeism in students, and improve student academic achievement through family outreach programs.
Over the months, Johnson garnered increasing praise from Walters and the State Board members for the school district’s efforts and progress. Board member Don Burdick typified the board assessment when he told Johnson in April, “I compliment you for all your great work [as] something our whole community can be proud of.” State Superintendent Ryan Walter joined the praise, characterizing Johnson’s work as an “incredible job” “drawing national attention” and expressing “incredible confidence that we are going to see significant academic progress this year for Tulsa.”
State Support For TPS
Walters and the OSDE have embarked on a significant initiative, providing unprecedented resources and financial support to bolster the efforts of Tulsa schools. The Oklahoma Eagle, recognizing the importance of this aid, requested a summary of the state’s contribution. Education Department spokesperson Dan Isett provided a comprehensive three-page listing of the special assistance directed toward Tulsa Public Schools. Here are some key excerpts from the OSDE’s listing of state resources being deployed:
- High Dosage Tutoring Support: OSDE funded tutoring at 26 TPS sites, training 85 teachers for 8-12 weeks, and direct tutoring 372 students.
- Literacy Coach Support: Dean Jones, director of Reading Sufficiency, and five team members served as supplemental teacher substitutes at TPS assigned schools, provided teachers with science of reading training, and aided Tulsa literary coaches.
- School Improvement Support: Program Director Theresa Wilson and six support specialists assisted 29 school sites, developed Continuous Improvement Plans and trained at all elementary schools in Tulsa on Oklahoma Framework and Standards.
- Oklahoma Teacher Empowerment Program: OSDE provided teacher substitutes at 13 sites, backfilling TPS student teaching and enabling specially qualified Tulsa teachers to focus on improving testing programs.
- Supplemental Funding: At the May 24 State Board meeting, Walters announced that the OSDE would provide $180,000 for the TPS summer school day camp. An additional $200,000 will be spent by the OSDE for district intervention efforts to prevent students from dropping out of school.
Even as she looks squarely at the challenges ahead, Johnson remains committed to the goal of providing the best possible education for Tulsa pupils.
“I am immensely proud of the nearly 34,000 students in Tulsa Public Schools.
she told The Oklahoma Eagle. “These amazing young people will be our future leaders. I know they are destined for greatness, and I continue to work every day to ensure they are equipped to meet their potential.”
