As a retired teacher, Stephney-Roberson knows firsthand how difficult it is to obtain material about Oklahoma’s black history. “During my years of teaching, I tried to find tools to use, but it was a topic that we were unable to acquire much information on,” she said. Impact highlights the men and women who played pivotal […]
education
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Standing up for special needs families
“What about organic?” she asks. “Two percent? Skim?” “Milk is milk,” an exasperated manager tells her. “We’ve got one kind. It was good for me. It’s good enough for kids today.” Education technology expert Richard Culatta recently shared that our public education system came to the U.S. via autocratic 18th-century Prussia. “Their purpose was as […]
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To the letter
“We have retained an investigator,” said Tammy T. Carter, general counsel for the school district. School officials said a private attorney is conducting the probe, but declined to release further details. Some parents have complained that their children are being advanced through the school system without being educated. They have accused Principal Brian Staples of […]
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Academic achievement
Manning, the school’s founding president, leaves after having helped shape OSSM into one of the nation’s finest schools. Newsweek recently ranked it 35th on the magazine’s annual list of the 1,000 best schools in the U.S. “I knew it would be fun to create a school, not just build buildings, that sort of thing — but […]
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Head of the class
The magazine unveiled its annual list today, noting that the rankings are based on graduation rates, college matriculation rates, advanced placement or international baccalaureate tests taken per student, average SAT and ACT scores, average high-level test scores and AP courses offered. The Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics was ranked 35th, while the Classen School […]
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Promises kept
It seemed too good to be true for some skeptics, who cautioned Smith, then a student at Western Heights High School, that there was no way this thing could actually fulfill its promise. “But here it is, 20 years later, still going strong,” she said. Among the first group of students to receive the scholarship, […]
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Drive a car, learn to read
They make our world bright and give us hope for the future. But who is responsible to assure their world is bright and safe? Thank you to the Oklahoma Legislature for funding a high-quality program for all 4-year-olds whose parents choose to give their children the opportunity to attend public school. As a result, Oklahoma […]
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Bully pulpit
Ty Field-Smalley On the morning of May 13, 2010, he and a friend were hanging out on gym bleachers before school when they were approached by a boy who’d been harassing Ty. A fight ensued. Eleven-year-old Ty went home, suspended. Later that morning, his parents said, the sixth-grader pointed a .22-caliber gun to his head […]
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School’s out
“Many of our sisters are getting too old to work in the school,” said Sister Patricia Ann Miller said. “While we’ve talked about bringing others in to work, the core of the school has always been Carmelite spirituality. We believe the school would eventually lose that focus.” Since its founding in 1933, Villa Teresa has […]
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No school takeover
Here’s why: Oklahoma City Public Schools were like a stalled-out train languishing on the tracks when I became superintendent three-and-a-half years ago. The 10 years prior averaged one superintendent per year, and each had a unique vision and plans to tackle this district’s enormous problems; but laying the tracks and the path for success require […]