Tulsa Community Schools Making Great Strides in Filling Achievement Gap
The Tulsa Community Schools Initiative (TACSI) will release its first achievement data. The results show community schools who have fully developed the model are the most successful in leveling the playing field for students and helping them achieve success – especially those students affected by poverty.
The community schools approach is based on a new mindset about achieving success for students and their families. The challenges today’s families and students face in their daily lives often become serious barriers to student learning. To overcome these barriers by addressing the needs of the “whole” child demands a purposeful partnership involving students, families, schools and communities in order to assure the best opportunities for all children.
A community school is both a place and a network of supportive partnerships between the school and the community. It provides a web of support that nurtures the development of children and adults by creating the necessary conditions for learning. By sharing expertise and resources, schools and communities act in concert to improve development of the whole child—academically, emotionally, physically, and socially.
The Tulsa Area Community Schools Initiative (TACSI) was established through the Tulsa Metropolitan Human Services Commission () in 2007. It is administered by the Community Service Council () and guided by a management team, community steering committee, Union and Tulsa school district implementation teams, and individual school site teams.
The six fully developed TACSI schools included in this report are: Eugene Field, Kendall-Whittier, Mark Twain, and Marshall elementary schools in Tulsa; Rosa Parks and Roy Clark elementary schools in Union. Additional schools working to become fully developed community schools included in this report are: Tulsa’s Addams, Alcott, Bryant, Celia Clinton, Cooper, Hawthorne, McClure, and McKinley; and Union’s Boevers, Briarglen, Grove, and McAuliffe.
Funding is provided by private philanthropy, corporations, and contributions from each school district.
Contact: Jan Creveling, Director of TACSI
jancreveling@aol.com Office: 918-699-4245 Cell: 918-691-1022
Updated 12-07-2010
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