Bartlesville earns fifth consecutive year as a Great Expectations Model District

Representative teachers and administrators from each Model School, along with Board of Education members and district administrators, were recognized by Great Expectations at a school board meeting in November 2017. Holding the Model District flag are Chuck McCauley, BPSD Supt. of Schools; Rick Pierce, Great Expectations Instructional Coach; Dr. Linda Dzialo, President and CEO of Great Expectations; and Dianne Martinez, BPSD Exec. Dir. of Elementary and Middle Schools.

At the school board meeting on Monday, November 14, 2017, the Bartlesville Public School District was recognized, for the fifth consecutive year, as a Great Expectations Model District. To qualify for the honor, each of the district's six elementary schools, two middle schools, and the high school had to earn Model School status in the program. That means 90 percent or more of the teachers in each school were implementing all of the Great Expectations practices in the classroom, as documented by site visits from Great Expectations staff, who examined the culture of the school and how the program's practices and principles were incorporated.

During the 2012-13 school year, the BPSD became the first school district in the nation to be named a GE Model District. The district was also named a GE Model District in each subsequent school year. The vision to become a Model District was created by the BPSD Board of Education and BPSD administrators, working with local school advocate Ginger Griffin and others.

In 2017 there were 89 Model Schools in the Great Expectations program, 84 of them in Oklahoma and five in Texas. Oklahoma districts with the largest number of Model Schools included Bartlesville, Choctaw-Nicoma Park, Edmond, and Oklahoma City. Great Expectations had 15 training sites during the 2016-2017 school year: nine in Oklahoma, four in Texas, and sites in Michigan and South Carolina.

Great Expectations is set with goals of motivating, inspiring and challenging individuals to achieve excellence in learning and living, Dzialo said. To become a Model School, the climate in schools is set through following six basic tenets, having eight expectations and 17 research-based practices for teachers.