Salem-Keizer Schools New Superintendent is Going to Help us Get Better, Right?

Tulsa School District's Chief Talent and Equity Officer - A look at what SKPS doesn't want you to look at

It was announced last night that the Salem-Keizer School Board approved the hiring of Andrea Castañeda, who lists herself as the Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Talent and Equity Officer for Tulsa Public Schools (TPS).

But all is not as rosy as the District would have you believe.

Let’s look first at what we would hope is a goal to move SKPS in a positive direction after the abysmal report card showing proficiency in Salem-Keizer students’ core subjects with “scores below the state average in all three core subjects, including an average proficiency across all grades of just 21% in math, 24% in science and 33% in English.”

It’s clear, SKPS needs help. So where does TPS sit under the innovation direction and talent management of Castañeda? According to Public School Review with data dated 2023, TPS has a proficiency in math sitting at 7% and reading sits at 12%. That’s the wrong direction.

U.S. News & World Report lists SKPS with a high school college readiness score of 23.3 and a high school graduation rate of 80.6%. There’s definitely some room for improvement there.

So what have innovations and talent management by Castañeda brought TPS up to that we can hope to aim for under the new Superintendent’s leadership?

Their scores of high school college readiness sit at 19.4 and their high school graduation rate is 76.9%.

Huh, those are worse, right? That’s the opposite direction from where we want to go.

More to come. Lots more… Stay tuned. Think state audits, questions on COVID funds, proximity to actual criminal acts. Those types of things.