Oklahoma Education and You

With the Democratic nominee selected and the Republican race headed to an August runoff, Oklahoma is effectively down to three people with a path to becoming the next State Superintendent.  Each of them promises similar things: cleaning up the state department, improving instruction, returning to basics, etc.  In other words, it is typical political language, devoid of details on how anything will be accomplished.

We don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel, though. Right now, Oklahoma does not lack education initiatives or departments within the state department of education. In fact, we may have too many of them operating in isolation.

We have the Strong Readers Act. We have Amira assessments. We have LETRS. We have the HEROES literacy instructional team. We have literacy tutors and math tutors. We have the Oklahoma Math Achievement and Proficiency Act. We have the State Textbook Committee and the push for high-quality instructional materials. We have MTSS training. We have the School Improvement Office. We have federal programs. We have regional accreditation officers.

The problem is how all of these things meld together to actually accomplish something. Like, for instance, raising reading and math scores.  

Where is the articulated strategy that explains how all of these pieces fit together? Where is the system map that shows how screening connects to curriculum, how curriculum connects to teacher training, how teacher training connects to coaching, how coaching connects to intervention, how intervention connects to public reporting, and how public reporting connects to real consequences when schools do not improve?

Oklahoma has the elements to fix our problems, but it lacks coherent systems to deliver support to schools, monitor implementation of initiatives, measure outcomes, and truly hold districts responsible for results.  

I became a school administrator the first year Janet Barresi took office.  Ms. Barresi had some good ideas. Remember the REACH coaches, and it looked to me like she at least had a plan. However, she rubbed many people the wrong way with her rhetoric and ultimately got caught up in the war over Common Core standards. The result was that she only lasted one term.  

Some key indicators improved during Barresi’s tenure, particularly NAEP fourth-grade reading, where Oklahoma’s average score rose to 222 in 2015, up from 217 in 2013 and above the state’s 2011 score of 215.

The state needs a leader in the Department of Education  who has the following skills. First, they need to be somewhat technocratic. They have to have enough knowledge of how pedagogy, assessment, standards, curriculum, and finance all meld together.  Second, they need to be an organizer used to managing large, complex organizations. Third, they need connections to the education community at large to identify and recruit talent to the state department to support schools. Fourth, they need the political skills to work with the School Boards Association, CCOSA, OEA, and POE, so that state department initiatives aren’t weakened by the legislature after extensive lobbying, like what happened with the original Reading Sufficiency Act.  Finally, they need the backbone to advocate for  putting accountability back in place for low-performing districts.  Ryan Walters attempted this by pushing for accreditation downgrades for districts with more than 50% of students scoring in the Below Basic Category in reading or math. His efforts ultimately failed due to his own shortcomings. However, the right approach is to work with school leaders and politicians to put in place triggers that would require changes in building and district leadership for schools with consistently poor academic performance bringing about a return to this much-needed accountability piece of No Child Left Behind.

I don’t know if any of the remaining candidates for State Superintendent have these skill sets, which raises the question of whether State Superintendent should even be an elected position.  Governor Stitt recommended changing the constitution to allow him to appoint to this position.  That might be the most sensible solution for Oklahoma to create consistency within the state department of education, resulting in systems that deliver real results for Oklahoma students.