The Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits (OKCNP) will host the 2021 Oklahoma Nonprofit Excellence (ONE) Awards on April 24, 2021, in Tulsa, with limited attendance. The event will be livestreamed on OKCNP’s website as well. Leading up to the event, we are celebrating the 21 Oklahoma nonprofit finalists in seven categories. Bartlesville Education Promise (BEP) is a finalist in the Education category.

“BEP is a community group with the goals of improving the Bartlesville Public Schools’ third-grade reading scores and the high school graduation rate,” said Chuck McCauley, superintendent, Bartlesville Public Schools. “The leaders, Martin Garber and Ginger Griffin, asked the district what kind of support it needed to meet these goals. Bartlesville Education Promise provides Bartlesville Public Schools with funds for after school tutoring for struggling students, STEM leadership opportunities, instructional support for students experiencing trauma, and support for students during transitions from elementary to middle school and middle school to high school. The Bartlesville Education Promise vision and support are making a positive difference for all our students.”

BEP has been serving the Greater Bartlesville Area since their founding in 2015. The mission of Bartlesville Education Promise is to guide their community towards assuming greater ownership for improved educational outcomes for all students of their schools, with special focus on improving graduation rates and readiness for higher education, technical school or full -time employment.  Working with the schools, this involves special attention in identifying and helping students who are struggling and at risk of dropping out of school before graduation.  Based on work with the schools, they identify unmet needs, develop appropriate programs and fund these with contributions from individuals, corporations, civic clubs and foundations.

Over 3,100 students in grades first through twelfth are provided education programs, such as after school tutoring with provided transportation home, weekend leadership programs for low income students in fourth and fifth grade and summer programs at the Boys and Girls Club, Tri-County Tech and other locations.

“Many of us became concerned with the falling graduation rates and how students were testing, as compared to international students,” said Ginger Griffin, co-founder, BEP. “As a result, we started to review national trends, options to improve these results, and study what we could do to improve outcomes in Bartlesville. After discussions with school administrators, local business leaders and teachers, we decided efforts needed to focus on third grade reading, the transition to and from middle school, and high school studies.  As a result, BEP was founded with a focus on these three areas and the needs of struggling students, many of whom face multiple traumas. After creation of our foundation, we started with after school tutoring at the high school. Then we focused on elementary school reading and tutoring at the middle schools. Now we help over 3,000 students a year, provide after school tutoring at all nine Bartlesville schools, and fund a strong third grade tutoring program, and many additional programs to stimulate learning, and even virtual programs to enhance learning because of the pandemic.”

With schools teaching virtually due to the pandemic, they extended their programs to include virtual reading tutoring for elementary students, reducing the not passing rate to 1 percent from 15 percent not passing the fourth grade. In addition, the graduation rate has raised from 83 percent in 2015 to 91 percent in 2020, when the pandemic hit.

To learn more about Bartlesville Education Promise visit their website: https://bartlesvilleeducationpromise.com/.

The ONE Awards is dedicated to honoring the outstanding work of Oklahoma nonprofits statewide. The ONE Awards also serves as the primary fundraising event for OKCNP. Proceeds from the ONE Awards enable OKCNP to serve communities throughout Oklahoma.

To learn more about the OKCNP ONE Awards or to watch the event, visit: https://okcnp.org/page/one-awards.