Representatives from The New Teacher Project gave their end of the year presentation to members of the Okmulgee Public School’s Board of Education.
TNTP Regional Director Jenny Ecklund, and program Partner Meghan Maguire presented their findings after spending the last year observing and assisting teachers at Okmulgee Public Schools.
Ecklund said that TNTP works at every level of the public school system to support its partners in targeting educational inequality, and help them to achieve their educational goals.
According to their website TNTP’s mission is “to end the injustice of educational inequity by providing excellent teachers to the students who need them most and by advancing policies and practices that ensure effective teaching in every classroom.”
Ecklund said that this process started last fall semester, with an academic diagnostic across the elementary, middle, and high school. This included observing 23 lessons, surveying 218 fami- lies, 164 students, 21 teachers, and analyzing the work of 59 students. In the Spring semester, they planned around these diagnostics.
Some of the things that they focused on were leadership coaching sessions, and a program called “Good to Great.” Ecklund said that the focus of Good to Great would be the third and fourth grade teachers, with English, Language, and Arts being the subject of focus.
The TNTP website states that “Good to Great” helps experienced teachers combine high expectations with strong instruction to make grade-level content accessible to all their students.
“As teachers, we are never done learning,” Ecklund added.
OPS board president Rod Wiemer asked, “What do we need to do to keep going?”
Maguire told them that “the reality is that there is a bit of an unknown.” She explained that they are funded by the OSDE, and noted that there have been delays in getting certain types of funding with recent “shifts” in the state department.
Maguire said they are waiting to hear back from the state department in order to understand what their funding will look like in the coming year, and what guidelines may or may not be attached to it.
They ended the presentation by stating their hope that the program can continue in the coming years.
