SOURCE: Tulsa News On 6 video (right) is © 2025 Griffin Media at https://www.newson6.com/story/67f3e531d14cf1a6cb3104c7/tulsa-public-schools-exit-csi-designation-johnson-walters

The good news in the bad news of Oklahoma’s low-performing school designations

by Wendy S. Pratt
First published on LinkedIn, April 14, 2025

Good news from the State Department of Education that 13 Tulsa Public School sites have “exited” designation as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools. Sadly,  few people realize how difficult this is to achieve. Every school improving student success deserves accolades for the hard work and dedication because it does not happen otherwise.

On the state’s full list of 111 designated schools (at https://oklaschools.com/state/ with some details at https://oklaschools.com/accountability-system/) are 79 CSI and 32 TSI (Targeted Support and Improvement) schools. Designation is for low scores on state tests and/or for low graduation rates though other factors including attendance and high-school postsecondary opportunities also impact the calculations. Results are available the Oklahoma School Report Cards platform at https://oklaschools.com.

Though no press release nor data reports accompanied it, the dog-and-pony show begs some questions.

• How much did reading and mathematics scores increase at these schools since they were first designated some years ago?

• Which of Oklahoma’s 1,697 other schools fell into the bottom 5% based on student performance and will take their place?

• Were these the only schools to exit designation? If so, how did they use Title I, Part A, School Improvement 1003(a) funding to make the difference? If not, how DID they use the money?

When Oklahoma celebrated these chronically low-performing schools rise above designation, it made little mention of Tulsa’s TSI schools or the other CSI schools in the district and throughout the state. Again: The faculty and students at these Tulsa schools should be celebrated; and we need to learn from their experience. But the TSI list is a warning indicator based on the “Priority Student Subgroup” data that informs state officials and the public about the next schools headed for the CSI label.

At least 13 other schools WILL be designated for Oklahoma’s “school improvement list,” at some point. WHEN is not clear because the state lowered its cut scores, which skews things. Still, the federal government requires each state to evaluate spring test scores and rank them by school site to identify the bottom five percent of schools every year. It is a bell curve; there will always be F schools.

In Oklahoma, each CSI school receives a portion of the 7% of Title I funding set aside for school improvement. All schools must adopt a Continuous Improvement Plan that meets state and federal mandates before they can spend the money. These budgets are supposed to be public record but are no longer available online.

Nonetheless, OklaSchools.com details state accountability factors relative to 698,923 children in 2024. The platform has most of the data you need to evaluate performance of your public school and compare it to others. And they are YOUR schools if you live in Oklahoma. But while this appears to be accurate data, the platform is not easy to navigate. Here’s a how-to:

• Go to https://oklaschools.com/state/ and click “View all Designated Schools”, which pops up a modal with a summary and links to each school’s report or you can download all the data.

• To evaluate any public school’s performance on state tests, see example (right) from the state report card. Go to “Contextual Data” menu and drop down to “Assessment Performance.”

• Drop-down menus for schools and districts are the same as for the state report card for all years available.

There is A LOT here to interest many but drop down about half-way for the required performance-level table first. Just above it you can download a CSV for the state (227,623 rows). This file includes the percentage of students who did not reach the expected score for their subgroup. [Also available for each school under “Indicators” > “Academic Achievement” > “Student Demographics” > “Improvement Toward Expectation.”]

In the CSV of 2024 Designated Schools are a couple of interesting fields: “finalActiveSchoolYear” and “firstActiveSchoolYear.” The former are dated “2025” so current school year. The latter factor likely indicates when a school was first designated. Oklahoma began this process in compliance with federal law in 2011-12.

How long schools have been on the list is relevant because the “7% set aside” from Oklahoma’s estimated $228.35 million in Title I funding (FY 2024) equals about $15.98 million to improve these schools. Annually. The State Department of Education has not accounted for this funding. Since only 8% of districts were legally obligated to improve these schools last year, possibly these funds could be better spent in properly vetted competitive grants for more low-performing schools.

The best news: More schools will be designated for CSI in the future to help us identify Oklahoma’s next priorities. “Designation” simply means “needs more help than most.” These are the districts where the state’s laser-like focus should be today.

The bottom line: Improving student success in every school is critical to Oklahoma’s future but is a process with no endpoint. All schools need our help every day.