Executive Q&A: Education consultant helps Oklahoma schools make the grade
In the early years after Jan Barrick started her education consulting business, her father and her Certified Public Accountant used to badger her annually around this time — tax time.
“When are you going to get a real job?” her father would ask, while her CPA was quick to point out that she earned less money than any of the five years she worked as a classroom teacher.
Fast-forward 28 years, and her CPA (she still uses the same one) isn’t hassling her now. In fact, he’s told her many times how proud he is of her, she said.
Barrick’s firm — Alpha Plus Educational Systems Inc. — provides Oklahoma kindergarten through 12th-grade schools with the curriculum, practice tests and training they need, so their teachers can use scientifically-proven methods to teach students to master the areas of reading, math and other subjects on which they’ll be tested. For example, if third-graders will be tested on comprehension, teachers instruct students how to understand what they’re reading versus focusing on phonetics, or sounding out words.
Her firm has brought schools graded “F,” based on students’ standardized test results, to a “B” in one school year and soon after to an “A.” For students in the sixth through 12th-grades, simulated standardized tests now are available online, Barrick said. ...
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