70% of Tulsa Schools receive failing grades | Launch Academy answers
By Dominick Cooper, Founder and Director of Launch Academy Tutoring Company, 2013 Nominee for Tulsa’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and university guest speaker on education and curriculum.
To hear that 70% of Tulsa Public Schools are failing (according to the state A-F system) is more than depressing and embarassing.
It’s shameful.
Now, before Tulsans jump down by throat, let me clarify any important detail that was not highlighted –
29% of ALL schools across the state received a D or F grade!
That’s almost 1-out-3 schools!
As one of the top Tulsa tutoring companies, Launch Academy Tutoring Company has a way of getting results. Outlined below is some ideas that we’ve implemented (and seen great results with) that Oklahoma schools could benefit from.
Partial merit-based pay
Between 25% and 33% of our tutors pay is based on if their student improved or not and how much they improved by. This allows our “A tutors” to excel and make great money, our “B tutors” to aspire to be A tutors, and for our “C tutors” to be promoted to customer status. *wink wink*
Results-oriented graduation
There are basic milestones in education. Third grade graduates should know their multiplication tables. Fourth graders should have master cursive writing. 7th graders should be comfortable with fractions and the property of areas. The list goes on. Without students having the basics, they should not be allowed to move forward. In a driving tests, certain things automatically fail you – rolling past a stop sign or not looking behind you as you back up, for one. They do this to make sure that drivers (at least starting out) have a strong foundation of safe driving expectations. Schools should follow suit.
Goal-based instruction and coaching
Without a goal, any direction will seem like the right one. At Launch Academy Tutoring Company, we always analyze what our students goals behind their tutoring are (raise their GPA, get into college, etc). By having this clear path of what they want to do, we can then not only provide tutoring geared towards that, but also provide additional support to help meet that goal.
These are just a few ideas that, in our opinion, could have huge benefits!
Stay Smart.
Dominick
