TULSA’S STREET SCHOOL RECEIVES ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION AWARD

  

            OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence presented its first $5,000 Oklahoma Award for Outstanding Achievement in Alternative Education to Tulsa’s Street School yesterday in Oklahoma City.

            Approximately 600 alternative education teachers and administrators were on hand for the presentation, which was made during the Oklahoma State Superintendent’s Alternative Education Summer Institute.

            The Street School is a tuition-free, non-profit alternative school of choice and therapeutic counseling program founded in 1972 in downtown Tulsa. Now a part of the Tulsa Public Schools district, the Street School serves approximately 140 students between the ages of 14 and 19 each year who are at risk of dropping out. The program supports students in meeting several goals, including graduating on time; completing an individual treatment plan; and acquiring the life skills and communication skills needed to be a good citizen, employee and parent.

            In accepting the award, Lori McGinnis, executive director of Street School, recounted the school’s long history and why it first became a model for other alternative education programs in Oklahoma.  Reading from a 1974 issue of Tulsa magazine, McGinnis shared how the school evolved from a Presbyterian Church Free Store to serve neighborhood youth who did not want to drop out, but wanted an alternative learning environment.
 

Emily Stratton (left), executive director of the Oklahoma

Foundation for Excellence, presents the foundation’s first

Oklahoma Award for Outstanding Achievement in Alternative

Education to the Street School of Tulsa. Accepting the award is

Lori McGinnis, executive director of the Street School.

 

            “It’s for kids off the streets – kids tired of public school hassels, kids in trouble, kids looking for a different way – and kids too tough in general to give up,” she read. “With instruction geared to each student, there’s no typical day at the Street School. Many needs are immediate, so the school day remains flexible.”

            McGinnis said the Street School’s former director, Rick Palazzo, was among the leaders who helped establish Oklahoma’s criteria for successful alternative education programs. Today, all state programs are evaluated based on those criteria. “So you can see that Street School helped pave the way for every school here,” McGinnis said.

            Today, Street School faculty members meet regularly to design curricula in six-week thematic units, providing interdisciplinary instruction with real-world applications. Their instruction incorporates the latest research-based strategies for helping non-traditional students learn. Through a partnership with the Tulsa Global Alliance, the Street School has become an alternative education model for educators from around the world. Some visits by international educators have focused on the Street School’s substance abuse program, while others have highlighted the school’s research-based approach to education.

            In 2007-08, the percentage of graduates from Street School was 83.3 percent, versus the state average of 76.4 percent. Last year, the school met or exceeded all 17 state-established

criteria for Alternative Education Programs, with notable achievements in intake and screening, community collaboration, individualized instruction, counseling and social services, student graduation plans, life skills instruction, self-evaluation, effective instruction and arts education. 

            Innovative programs at the Street School include student internships with local business partners, a Leadership Class, a mentoring program, service-learning opportunities, and a student-led HIV/AIDS and Teen Pregnancy Prevention outreach program. With the theme “The World as Our Classroom,” Street School students also participated in more than 300 field trips last year as a means of learning through real-life, hands-on experiences. Their learning adventures included such destinations as state museums, the Health Department, the Recycling Center, the Community Food Bank and the Cherokee Heritage Center.

            “We are delighted to recognize the Street School of Tulsa for its innovative programs and its exceptional record of helping at-risk youth complete high school and prepare for success in society,” said Emily Stratton, executive director of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, a charitable organization that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools.

 

 

Emily Stratton (fourth from right), executive director of the

Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, presents the foundation’s

first Oklahoma Award for Outstanding Achievement in Alternative

Education to the Street School of Tulsa. Accepting the award are

Street School faculty and staff members (from left) Maureen

Teruki, Lorraine McReynolds, Jana Emerson, Pamela Sinor,

Executive Director Lori McGinnis, Will Allen, Matt Livingood,

Tanith Reans and Anais Garcia.