Tulsa Public Schools maintains accreditation after superintendent resigns

(TULSA, Okla.) The State Board of Education voted unanimously to maintain Tulsa Public Schools’ accreditation “with deficiencies” on Thursday, just one day after the TPS school board accepted district superintendent Deborah Gist’s letter of resignation. 

Tulsa Public Schools has been under state fire since last year, when it was downgraded to accreditation “with warning” following complaints under House Bill 1775, which bans teaching that “any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex”, amongst other things.

The law has since had a chilling effect on the teaching of Black and Indigenous history that could make students feel uncomfortable. 

Walters assumed the position of state superintendent in January of this year following his political campaign decrying so-called “woke” ideology. 

A former grant writer under Walter’s administration has since come forward saying she was instructed to keep to the guidance of “no trauma-informed training, no social-emotional learning, no DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programming, and no LGBTQ+” for her position. 

During the accreditation process last month, Walters singled out Tulsa Public Schools, a district that is made up of mostly Black and Hispanic students, for its August state board meeting.  

Concern over the silencing of diverse perspectives has also been a talking point regarding the public state board meetings themselves, which have seen an RSVP system, low-capacity locations, and “Public Comments” shifted until after discussion and action on controversial matters like TPS’s accreditation. 

Gist said she resigned to avoid a state takeover.

“It is no secret that our state superintendent has had an unrelenting focus on our district and specifically on me, and I am confident that my departure will help to keep our democratically-elected leadership and our team in charge of our schools–this week and in the future,” Gist wrote in her resignation letter. 

Walters responded to Gist’s resignation with a statement expressing his pleasure at the news. 

“From day one, I called for the removal of Gist in order to get the district on a path to success,” Walters said. “I am optimistic that this is a step in the right direction, that TPS and the community takes their situation seriously. Financial transparency and academic outcomes must come next.” 

Following the board’s approval of TPS accreditation, Walters reiterated his willingness to “do whatever it takes for these kids”. 

“I would advise Tulsa Public Schools and their leadership: Do not test me,” Walters said. 

In addition to upgrading TPS’s accreditation status, the board also voted to require the district to develop a reading plan and a plan for failing schools, and to provide monthly in-person reports to the state board for the next four months.

While the state’s focus has been on Tulsa, Oklahoma as a whole has an education problem. Oklahoma graded itself a “C” for academic achievement for the 2021-2022 school year, but nationally the state is ranked 49th in education.  

Students are measured by certain indicators according to the Oklahoma School Report Cards website, such as Oklahoma’s Academic Achievement indicator which “uses individual student performance on annual state tests as a measure of a student’s readiness for the next grade or course and an indication of the degree to which students are prepared for life after high school”. 

Percentages represent how well students are meeting their academic achievement target, with a statewide percentage of 48.7 percent making the cut.

Recent data shows white students earned the top indicator score statewide at 61.1 percent. 

43.9 percent of American Indian students are hitting their targets, followed by 31.6 percent of Hispanic students hitting theirs. 

15 percent of Black students are hitting their targets. 

Human Rights Watch has found great economic disparities between Tulsa's Black and white populations in the past, including a Black poverty rate of 34 percent versus a white poverty rate of 13 percent. They also found the unemployment rate for Black Tulsans to be over twice the rate for white Tulsans. 

Economically Disadvantaged students are hitting targets less than their non-economically disadvantaged counterparts (34.6 percent and 65.4 respectively), despite making up a greater portion of the population. 

Tulsa Public Schools, where failing schools have a tendency to have more children living in poverty, are shown to be hitting just 8.4 percent of their targets.