A Tale Of Two Counties
It is often somewhat hard to conceptualize the effect of restructuring Oklahoma's 531 public school districts. to that end, Sooner Politics' researchers sampled two very stark contrasts in educational administration.
Owasso is a growing city in the far outreaches of Tulsa County. Their 11 schools are a part of one district with 9600 students and a very good superintendent who makes a very good salary. His teachers perform well in the classroom and state testing demonstrates it through standardized testing.
Carter County, on the other hand; has 9 school districts ranging from the 3000+ in Ardmore Public Schools, to districts as small as 200 students total. The 9300 students are spread throughout the county. Nine superintendents share the load and earn a combined $730K per year. The students score a very average result in standardized tests.
This is just one comparison of Oklahoma's various schools. Other rural counties, like Choctaw & Pittsburgh Counties are even less efficient.
Owasso is a growing city in the far outreaches of Tulsa County. Their 11 schools are a part of one district with 9600 students and a very good superintendent who makes a very good salary. His teachers perform well in the classroom and state testing demonstrates it through standardized testing.
Carter County, on the other hand; has 9 school districts ranging from the 3000+ in Ardmore Public Schools, to districts as small as 200 students total. The 9300 students are spread throughout the county. Nine superintendents share the load and earn a combined $730K per year. The students score a very average result in standardized tests.
This is just one comparison of Oklahoma's various schools. Other rural counties, like Choctaw & Pittsburgh Counties are even less efficient.
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| David Van Risseghem |
Superintendent pay is too high! The number of students is not the key. It's the number of employees that are supervised. 1 Superintendent to 30 school principals sounds right to me. The single school district for each county sounds workable.
ReplyDeleteWe should be offering more school choice and less busing. Rural areas are the hardest hit with no choice. Home school needs to be brought into the mainstream by providing internet based curriculum, free of charge, to private schools. Payment checks sent directly to the parent is workable and will end the public school prison model.