OKLAHOMA CITY — As national data shows the academic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, Oklahoma districts report stubborn challenges that worsened during the global crisis.
Leaders of local districts say students’ poor attendance and behavior have thrown up barriers to reaching or exceeding pre-pandemic levels of academic achievement.
A national report shows the gap to pre-pandemic results widened during the 2023-24 school year, despite billions in public spending on recovery efforts.
Test scores from 7.7 million U.S. students in grades 3-8 show the average student would need the equivalent of 4.8 extra months of instruction to catch up in reading and 4.4 additional months in math, according to the report from NWEA, a testing company and research center.
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NWEA administers standardized assessments called MAP to track students’ academic progress across the country, including in more than 100 Oklahoma school districts.
The fact that federal pandemic aid will soon end only exacerbates concerns, the NWEA report states. Oklahoma schools received more than $2 billion and must spend what’s left of it by Sept. 30.
“Instead of treating COVID recovery interventions as temporary crisis-mitigation tactics, we must make targeted academic supports, such as high-dosage tutoring and summer programming, a permanent part of our new normal,” the report’s authors, Karyn Lewis and Megan Kuhfeld, wrote. Skelly Elementary teacher Charity Hargrave leads a reading exercise with a small group of fifth graders in Tulsa on April 9. Tulsa Public Schools is one of more than 100 Oklahoma districts that uses NWEA assessments. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
The full results from Oklahoma state tests taken in the spring aren’t yet available. Last year, only 27% of Oklahoma students scored at a proficient level on state tests for reading, math and science.
In Lawton Public Schools, academic results haven’t recovered as quickly as the district wanted, Superintendent Kevin Hime said. The biggest barrier, he said, has been student absenteeism.
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“We all know attendance is one of the things that’s lagged since the pandemic,” Hime said. “It’s been harder to get kids to come to school, believe it or not.”
Lawton has been working on “finding those hooks” that attract more students to school.
“Makerspace” days when elementary children get to do hands-on activities in science, technology, engineering and math show strong attendance numbers, he said. Administrators even looked at the correlation between attendance rates and which meals are served in the cafeteria.
The district also saw increased interest in its summer programs this year, Hime said. Instead of calling the program “summer school,” Lawton rebranded it as a “summer camp” and added more enrichment activities.
Hime said he hopes better attendance, more parent engagement and “making sure we put in as many minutes of reading and math as we can” next school year will help close the gap to pre-pandemic achievement.
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Bartlesville Public Schools is working to shrink that gap, too, but the district realized it would have to address student behavior issues to do it, Superintendent Chuck McCauley said.
Students are acting less mature than they did before the pandemic, especially among younger grades, he said. That’s why Bartlesville hired three more elementary school counselors — to address behavioral problems and child trauma.
The district plans to keep the extra counselors it hired, even after federal stimulus funds run out. McCauley said a 300-student increase in Bartlesville’s enrollment made it financially viable to retain the additional staff.
In Tulsa Public Schools, district leaders report decreases in student suspensions and improvements in attendance. The district introduced extra tutoring sessions this year and registered 6,500 students for its summer programs as it tries to propel academic performance upward. Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Ebony Johnson speaks to the Oklahoma State Board of Education during an April 25 in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
Superintendent Ebony Johnson said attendance is a “difficult metric” to improve but a necessary one. About 45% of Tulsa students were chronically absent in 2023-24, meaning those students missed 10% or more of the school year, district leaders said at a June 27 meeting with the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
Johnson said that’s an improvement of 2.6% from the year before.
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“We have seen a decrease in chronic absenteeism, but we’re not celebrating yet because that’s way too many students that are missing too much school,” Johnson said during the state board meeting.
The Tulsa district has leaned heavily on MAP tests from NWEA to help track student learning. Tulsa students took MAP assessments three times this school year, along with the spring state tests.
The final spring MAP evaluation showed strong growth in reading among early elementary students, especially third graders, but results were more stagnant in upper elementary and middle school, district leaders have said.
However, students still improved throughout the school year, even if the upward trajectory wasn’t as steep in some grade levels as the district hoped, said Sean Berkstresser, Tulsa’s chief of strategy and innovation, during the state Board of Education meeting last month.
“Our students learned still, and we saw improvements,” Berkstresser said. “So, I want to make sure that’s known. You’ve seen what’s in front of us with a lot of these data points. There’s a lot more to do.”
NORMAN, Okla. — Freshman star Darius Acuff Jr. had 21 points and nine assists, and No. 15 Arkansas held off Oklahoma 83-79 on Tuesday night.
Meleek Thomas added 16 points for the Razorbacks (16-5, 6-2 Southeastern Conference), who have won four of their past five games.
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Arkansas shot 55.6% from the field despite making just 2 of 17 3-pointers.
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Nijel Pack scored 22 points for Oklahoma (11-10, 1-7 SEC), which lost its seventh straight. The Sooners were coming off a heartbreaking loss at Missouri on Saturday that included buzzer-beaters by the Tigers to tie late in regulation and win in overtime.
This game had a better atmosphere than most games at the Lloyd Noble Center. There was free admission because of the cold weather. A fair number of vocal Arkansas fans made the relatively short drive — the Arkansas campus is a 3 1/2-hour drive from Oklahoma’s.
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Pack scored 16 points in the first half to help Oklahoma take a 48-44 lead. The Sooners made 7 of 16 3-pointers before the break. Arkansas trailed despite shooting 61.3% from the field.
An alley-oop dunk by Trevon Brazile on a long pass from Acuff put the Razorbacks up 61-58, but the Sooners immediately responded with a 3-pointer by Jadon Jones to tie the score with just under 11 minutes remaining.
Arkansas led 71-70 with 4:31 remaining when Oklahoma’s Derrion Reid went up for a shot and was fouled hard by Karter Knox. The foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 1, and Reid made two free throws to give the Sooners the lead.
The game remained tight the rest of the way. Acuff made a driving layup and was fouled with 21 seconds left, and he made the free throw to put the Razorbacks up 81-79.
After Brazile blocked Oklahoma guard Xzayvier Brown’s layup, Thomas made two free throws to finish the scoring.
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Find more Oklahoma coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Clendon Thomas, one of the foundational pieces of Bud Wilkinson’s 1950s dynasty at Oklahoma and one of the most versatile players in the history of the program, died Monday night.
Thomas, 90, grew up in Oklahoma City and was a standout at Southeast High School, where he stood out with tremendous speed to go with unusual size.
“I got do do what I dreamed about doing,” Thomas told the National Football Foundation in 2011.
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Wilkinson mined elite talent from all over the Sooner State while also establishing recruiting roots throughout north Texas, and he certainly didn’t hesitate to scoop up Thomas, who won two national championships, made the College Football Hall of Fame and plied his skills into an 11-year career in the NFL.
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Thomas played three seasons at OU under Wilkinson (1955-57) and received All-Big Seven Conference honors as a halfback in 1956 and 1957. In 1957, he earned consensus first-team All-America honors.
Oklahoma halfback Clendon Thomas | OU Athletics
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In 2011, Thomas was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was the 19th overall pick in the second round of the 1958 NFL Draft.
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Beyond all that, Thomas starred on offense, defense and special teams for the second half of Wilkinson’s NCAA record 47-game winning streak and was part of the group that broke the color barrier in Norman.
In Gary King’s 1988 book, “An Autumn Remembered; Bud Wilkinson’s Legendary ’56 Sooners,” King references the now infamous Sports Illustrated issue explaining “Why Oklahoma Is Unbeatable,” which quoted Thomas as proud of being part of the streak — and not wanting to be a part of the team that breaks it.
“You can’t pinpoint it (OU’s winning spirit),” Thomas said. “The guys way back started it. Then it rubs off on you. We go out and we win and we play to win. None of us wants to be on the team that ends this streak. I guess no matter what else you ever did, people would remember were on the team that lost the game that ended the streak.”
The following Saturday, Notre Dame ended the streak with a 7-0 victory in Norman.
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Thomas was also teammates with fellow Oklahoma City native Prentice Gautt, who in 1957 became the first black scholarship football player at the University of Oklahoma. In a time when tensions might have run hot, Thomas was one of those who always kept a cool head.
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Thomas told King, “If there were problems, there were very few. I was not aware of any. Basically, we had a whole team that accepted him. He was a good guy. They couldn’t have picked a better person to be the first black player because of his personality, his ability as a student and his ability as a player.”
Even now, 70 years after his college football career began, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Thomas — unusually big for a halfback in the 1950s — still sits at No. 23 in OU history with 2,199 rushing yards despite playing in Wilkinson’s Split T offense that was famous for spreading the football to numerous players all over the field. In his career, Thomas averaged 6.81 yards per rush, which still ranks fourth all-time at the school among OU’s top 30 rushers.
Thomas also ranks No. 25 in program history with 37 total touchdowns, and his 1956 total of 18 TDs still ranks tied for 11th in OU annals.
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Oklahoma halfback Clendon Thomas | OU Athletics
His 3,303 all-purpose yards (2,199 rushing, 304 receiving, 405 on punt returns, 324 on punt returns and 71 on interceptions) still ranks No. 23 in the Oklahoma history books.
As a junior in 1956, Thomas led the nation in scoring with 108 total points (18 touchdowns). Thomas led the team with 1,225 all-purpose yards, which included 878 rushing, a team-high 241 receiving yards, 178 on kickoff returns and 115 on punt returns.
As a senior, he again led Wilkinson’s squad in total offense (968 yards) and scored 10 touchdowns. He also punted 41 times and led the Sooners with a 37-yard average.
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Thomas led the Sooners in kickoff returns in both ’56 and ’57, averaging 24.8 yards per runback.
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He achieved two other marks that still are among the best ever at OU: Thomas’ average of 17.7 yards on punt returns (212 yards) set during his sophomore year in 1955, is tied for third as the all-time single-season mark, and his career average of 20.3 yards per punt return ranks No. 2 among the Crimson and Cream.
Thomas played in the same backfield as Gautt (a two-time All-Big Seven back and eight-year pro), Jimmy Harris (the Sooners’ winningest quarterback with a 25-0 record as the starter) and TommyMcDonald (one of just two Sooners in both the pro and college halls of fame) — and he still stood out as one of Wilkinson’s most prolific and most accomplished players.
Among Thomas’ other exploits in Norman, he rushed 13 times for 123 yards in the Sooners’ 1956 victory over Texas and finished with six career 100-yard rushing games, including a career-high 162 in the 1957 victory over Oklahoma State and 101 (on just eight carries) in a win over Nebraska.
Still, Thomas’ teams at OU combined to win 31 games and lose just once.
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Thomas played defensive back for 11 seasons in the NFL for the Rams (1958-61) and Steelers (1962-68) and finished his pro career with 27 interceptions for 244 return yards to go with 10 fumble recoveries and one touchdown.
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A year after picking off seven passes in 1962, Thomas was recognized in 1963 for the Pro Bowl and earned second-team All-Pro honors as he brought down eight interceptions (for 122 yards).
Thomas also landed second-team All-Pro accolades in 1962, ’63, and ’66.
He remained versatile enough in the NFL to contribute on offense as well: he caught 60 passes for 1,046 yards and four touchdowns during his career, including a career-high 431 for the Steelers in 1965, and also added 63 yards receiving, 73 yards on punt returns and 552 yards on kickoff returns. He also served one game as the Rams’ punter in 1958, averaging 33.0 yards per punt.
Following his playing career, Thomas enjoyed several business ventures in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma State hasn’t had a Heisman winner since 1988, but it might have a candidate next season.
Throughout OSU football history, there have been some iconic players to roll through Stillwater and plenty more iconic college football seasons. Most recently, Ollie Gordon’s 2023 campaign sent shockwaves through the college football landscape as he broke out to become the nation’s leading rusher and led OSU to a Big 12 Championship appearance and a 10-win season.
Of course, that would be the final big season of the Mike Gundy era. After that 10-4 campaign that saw OSU reach heights no one could have expected, the Cowboys fell off a cliff, winning only four games since.
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With Gundy now out at OSU, Eric Morris is looking to bring another era of success to Stillwater, and it might all start with a bang with Drew Mestemaker running the show under center in 2026. Last season, Mestemaker was the starting quarterback for Morris’ North Texas squad and established himself as one of the top passers in the country.
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While OSU has seen guys like Brandon Weeden, Mason Rudolph and Zac Robinson over the years, it’s been a while since the Cowboys have had an elite gunslinger, which Mestemaker could soon be in Stillwater. With the Mean Green in 2025, Mestemaker finished with 4,379 yards, 34 touchdowns and nine interceptions, marks which would make him the talk of college football if he can repeat that against Big 12 competition.
Of course, any Heisman campaign for Mestemaker will be about much more than his impressive numbers on the field. OSU has managed to win only two games against FBS teams in the past two years and is riding a 19-game Big 12 losing streak.
Anything Mestemaker can do in the stat sheet is great, but his real impact that would catch Heisman-like attention is how his play changes the Cowboys’ fate. If OSU can climb back into the Big 12 title picture in just one season after a 1-11 record in 2025, Mestemaker will almost certainly be at the front of that story. After Fernando Mendoza’s Heisman run at Indiana, the stage is clearly set for players like Mestemaker to use immense team success to their advantage in the Heisman race.
Perhaps putting Mestemaker in any sort of Heisman talks is premature, but considering his year at North Texas and how quickly turnarounds can happen in this era of college football, don’t be shocked if a Cowboy is at the Heisman ceremony in December.
