Oklahoma Academic All Staters Announced

The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence has announced the recipients of its prestigious 2008 Academic All-State Awards. These are 100 of the top public high school seniors in Oklahoma.
David L. Boren, chairman and founder of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, describes the selection of the scholars as “Oklahoma’s most rigorous academic competition.”

To be nominated for Academic All-State, students must meet one of the following criteria: an American College Test (ACT) composite score of at least 30; a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) combined critical reading and math score of at least 1350; or be selected as a semi-finalist for a National Merit, National Achievement or National Hispanic Scholarship.

The Tulsa Chigger salutes each and every one of these future leaders.

How did our local high schools fare? Let's take a look, shall we?

Booker T. Washington High School

William Chyan
Susanna Michael
Meredith Nelson

With an enrollment of 1248, BTW has 1 all-stater for every 416 students

Jenks High School

Mary Lyn Graves
Christina Jackson
Conghua Ye

With an enrollment of 2129, Jenks has 1 all-stater for every 710 students

Union High School

James Buchanan
Elaine Shan

With an enrollment of 1932, Union has 1 all-stater for every 966 students

Memorial High School

Duncan Staggs

With an enrollment of 1249, Memorial has 1 all-stater for every 1249 students

AND THE WINNER IS:

Tulsa School of Arts & Sciences (Charter School)

Catherine Roberts

With and enrollment of just 274, TSAS has 1 all-stater for every 274 students!

TSAS continues to prove that it has the best academic performance of all the area high schools.

Don't you think its time we break the monopolistic hold on public education by Tulsa Public Schools, and demand that Tulsa have more charter schools?

A Three Year Itch

Hooray! Yippee!

Today ends the third year of my blog, Tulsa Chiggers. Neither the first nor the last blog about local issues for Tulsa Oklahoma.

TPS Board Approved Early Termination of Deborah Brown Charter School Contract

The founder and director of the absolutely outstanding Deborah Brown Community School is the person pictured at right. Her charter school is the first one granted in Tulsa. It has a long and distinguished record of achievement and progress. It is a bright and shining star on the city's north side when it comes to public education.

It appears that Deborah Brown Community School has already taken steps to end the sponsorship of their charter with TPS and may instead be sponsored by Langston University-Tulsa. The TPS Board approved the early termination this week and you can read about it here. This became possible when our state legislature passed an amendment to the Oklahoma Charter School Act in 2007 which allows certain higher education institutions to become sponsors for charter schools.

The TPS lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the OCSA has cast a cloud of doubt over the future of charters in the state. As a result, there have been no new charter applicants step forward. Until the TPS suit is settled, I don't foresee any sponsor stepping up to the plate.