Organizational health

Employee engagement

We are committed to being a district where every team member - from the "Bus Barn" to the classroom to the Education Service Center - knows how their work makes a difference for Tulsa children and families.

We believe every employee should feel supported and valued, and that every employee should have opportunities to grow and develop as people and as professionals. Moving forward, we are looking at ways to understand the connection that our employees have to our mission, vision, and core values.

Novice teacher retention

The first few years in the field can be especially challenging for teachers. It is not unusual for a teacher to leave the profession after their third year - just as they are hitting their stride in the classroom. We focused on our 200 novice teachers during the 2016-2017 school year with real-time coaching, teacher-mentors, and specialized professional learning.

We set a goal to increase novice teacher retention by three percentage points. Even with 95% of novice teachers satisfied with their supports and professional learning, we did not meet our goal. We used this as a growth opportunity and we're looking forward to improved results in year two by:

• Continuing to pair novice educators with master teacher mentors;
• Improving the use of real-time teacher coaching; and
• Focusing on instructional supports around our college-and-career ready curricula.

Early impact:

• 67.7% novice teachers who stay with the district.

Creating a service oriented culture

Our district office exists to serve our school leaders and teachers and unfortunately, we missed the mark in providing exceptional service and supports over the last year. We must improve the experiences that school teams have with the district office by:

• Building a district office that is far more attentive to service and user-focused;
• Aligning our staffing structure, programs, and services around the needs of our schools; and
• Continuing to seek feedback and insights from school leaders and teachers to inform decision-making and practices.