‘The best and brightest ever being produced’

"We are doing a better job in public education today than ever before in history," said state Sen. Ron Sharp, a retired teacher, in remarks to the Senate Education Committee on February 20. "Our kids are the best and brightest ever being produced, and for someone to indicate that 100 years ago that kids were being educated better, or 50 years ago, is someone who has not studied history."

And apparently Sen. Sharp said some other interesting things in that same meeting.

Failing to acknowledge the merits of school choice

"Recently, the Center for Public Education, an arm of the National School Boards Association, released a report on the merits of school choice," James V. Shuls writes. "The paper claims to summarize 'what the research says.' Interestingly, the report fails to include almost every analysis that has found benefits to private school choice programs."

UPDATE: Jason Bedrick adds: "The Center for Public Education does not explain what criteria it used to determine which studies to include in its supposed review of the research on school choice. Hopefully they will respond to Prof. Shuls’ critique by issuing a revised report that is more transparent and thorough––but don’t hold your breath."

A false narrative?

I found a couple more quotes for my "ed in the sand" file. It seems that some Oklahoma bloggers are bothered by "the false narrative that public schools are failing" (or, if your prefer the creepier version with capitalization, "the false narrative that Public Education is failing").

I suppose it depends on the what the meaning of the word "failing" is. Only one in three Oklahoma fourth-graders is a proficient reader. The numbers are even worse for eighth-grade math.

Unfortunately, another new report reminds us that Oklahoma's state tests continue to mislead parents about this unacceptably poor student achievement (something OCPA has been pointing out for nearly a decade).

'Throwing money at a system that's not working'

Former Gov. Frank Keating (a Republican) and former state treasurer Scott Meacham (a Democrat) took to the pages of The Oklahoman last week to sound the alarm about Oklahoma’s very serious educational-performance problems. “It appears policymakers, the education establishment, and even a vocal minority of parents in Oklahoma are in a state of denial when it comes to what’s happening,” they wrote.

Keating and Meacham outlined some practical, structural fixes. “Once these structural problems are addressed, only then should we have a serious discussion about increasing funding,” they added. “Oklahoma remains near the bottom in the nation on per-pupil expenditures for education. Clearly, we can’t underfund our way to excellence. But throwing money at a system that’s not working won’t change anything.”

They’re right. We know from federal data, for example, that only half of the money we’re throwing at the system is going to instruction. But sometimes it’s not even necessary to mine the spending data. Sometimes a simple thought-experiment is illuminating:

Not just a river in Egypt

Oklahoma's latest A-F report cards are out, and many in the public-education community are up in arms. Not about the disappointing results, mind you, but about the report cards themselves. But as The Oklahoman notes in an excellent editorial, at this point denial just looks silly.

Here’s the problem for critics of A-F school grading: Numerous independent measurements also suggest Oklahoma is failing many students.

Just 22 percent of Oklahoma graduating seniors in 2014 demonstrated college and career readiness in all four core subjects on the ACT college entrance exam — English, reading, science and math — according to ACT's 2014 Condition of College and Career Readiness report. And roughly one-fourth of seniors didn’t take the ACT.

A recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation report gave Oklahoma failing grades for academic achievement, academic achievement by low-income and minority students, and international competitiveness. Oklahoma also got D’s for post-secondary and workforce readiness, parental options and data quality.

The “Quality Counts” report from Education Week found just 13.6 out of every 100 Oklahoma students taking advanced placement tests achieve a high score. That’s about half the national average.

The percentage of Oklahoma students rated “proficient” or better on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests for reading and math in the fourth and eighth grades is below the national average, in some cases substantially lower. Students in neighboring Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri outperform Oklahoma students in NAEP math and reading proficiency. And a much larger share of students in Arkansas and Texas achieved high AP scores.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 39 percent of Oklahoma high school graduates who attend college take at least one remedial course (meaning they have to retake high school classes).

Those wishing to serve in the military must achieve a minimum score on the ASVAB test to enlist. A 2010 Education Trust report, which examined ASVAB results from 2004 to 2009, found that 23.2 percent of Oklahoma high school graduates (including 39.5 percent of black students) failed. 

Other measurements could be cited — when stacked up internationally, for example, Oklahoma's schools are even worse than you think , as Greg Forster points out in Perspective — but the point is made. The monopoly schools have a long way to go. And as The Oklahoman notes, "Denial is a poor battle plan for school improvement."

Quote of the day

"We all think we know how to run education because we went to school. Well, there are definite ways to teach, definite ways to learn, and those who spend their lives learning it and practicing it ought to be the ones we rely on for this."

—State Rep. Ann Coody, a former teacher, saying the vast majority of Oklahomans "are not former educators"

Not that bad

Steven Crawford is executive director of the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration, one of the many special interests devoted to maintaining the government's school monopoly. He was recently quoted as saying, "Honestly, public schools aren't as bad as [the state superintendent] has portrayed them to be."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, to be sure. The reader is left wondering, "Umm, well, how bad are they? Are they only moderately bad?" In any case, Mr. Crawford is right: the schools are not as bad has the superintendent has portrayed them to be. They're worse.

Ed in the sand

A few days ago the superintendent at Tulsa Union took to the pages of the Tulsa World to assure Oklahomans that "our public schools are doing great work," adding with emphasis: "Our education system is not broken!"

Whereupon it struck me that I need to create a new label—let's call it "Ed in the Sand"—and chronicle various statements of this sort when they come along. Here are some others from years past:

"Education hasn't failed, except maybe in a few overcrowded, underfunded urban districts."

—Sand Springs superintendent Lloyd Snow

"I feel that our public schools are doing a great job in educating our students."      

—Oklahoma state Sen. Richard Lerblance (D-Hartshorne)

"They are using our Governor and Superintendent to carry their water in an attempt to convince parent's [sic] that public schools are bad."                                                                          

—Ivan Holmes, Democratic candidate for state superintendent

"It is simply not true."                                                                                                        

—Jason James, assistant superintendent in Clinton, on the suggestion that "public schools are failing"