90% of Oklahoma ACT test-takers do not meet readiness benchmarks in all subjects

Public Radio Tulsa has the story.

Oklahoma's school-produced illiteracy crisis persists

"Around 20 percent of Oklahomans, approximately 560,000 people, have a 6th-grade reading level or less," says state Sen. Jessica Garvin.

As I pointed out 13 years ago (and sadly, nothing has changed), if taxpayers give Oklahoma schools 13 years and a hundred grand, they should at the very least teach Johnny to read.

6 in 10 Enid students 'fall short' in math

"Math knowledge—one of the basic skills for all of us to function in our complex world—still is lagging among school-age youth," the Enid News & Eagle editorializes. "Although some students and even entire school districts are excelling in math scores overall, statewide proficiency tests ranking student scores against grade-level expectations show really uneven progress. In the large Enid Public Schools district, only 38% of students are at or above the expectations. The other 62% fall short."

Surveys reveal little improvement in Oklahoma’s literacy rates since 2012

"About 1 in 5 Oklahoma adults struggle to read and comprehend written English," Oklahoma Voice reports.

State Superintendent says Tulsa public schools are failing our kids

He's not wrong.

It's a good question

"If educators are the experts," asks one longtime Oklahoma public school teacher, "then why are the majority of our schools failing at teaching our kids to read and do math on grade level?"

TPS illiteracy is 'commonplace'

KTUL has the story of "one of many" Tulsa children who can't read.

Nearly 19 of 20 Oklahoma high-school graduates unprepared in STEM

Ray Carter has the story.

Lost learning, lost earnings

Oklahoma public schools have more money than they’ve ever had, “and it’s not even close.” Yet look at what we’re doing to our children’s chances of future success.

Demographics don’t explain Oklahoma’s bad school results

Oklahoma’s poor educational outcomes are often dismissed as a byproduct of student demographics, particularly child poverty. But according to a new study, that is not the case.

NAEP tests show academic results plunged under Hofmeister

Oklahoma’s fourth-grade students in 2022 had nearly one-and-a-half years less learning than their counterparts in 2015.

Oklahoma’s ACT scores are the third-lowest in the country

That is bad news, indeed, but the trend line is what should truly worry Oklahomans.

ACT scores declining or flat for 7 of 8 years under Hofmeister

The graduating class of 2022 in Oklahoma had among the worst average composite scores in the nation on the ACT test — a statistic made even worse by the fact that the national score was the lowest seen in three decades. 

Oklahoma testing results continue to disappoint

Despite record-high levels of funding, Ray Carter reports, a large majority of Oklahoma students in all grades and subjects are not proficient in academic performance.

School spending surge brings complaints, not improvement

Oklahoma public schools “have more money than they’ve ever had in the history of the state," one House leader notes, "and it’s not even close.”

Academic outcomes vary in Oklahoma schools, but decline the norm

"In Tulsa Public Schools, 89 percent of students tested below grade level in all subjects, and 64 percent were more than a year behind," Ray Carter reports. "In Oklahoma City, 90 percent of students performed below grade level in all subjects. State tests showed 67 percent of students were more than one year behind."

Oklahoma learning loss worse than surrounding states

"While students nationwide experienced learning loss during COVID shutdowns, the decline in Oklahoma was worse than in surrounding states," Ray Carter reports. 

Oklahoma school district says diploma is no indicator of learning

"In a court filing, an Oklahoma school district has declared the issuance of either a passing grade or a high school diploma is not—'and never has been'—an indicator that a student mastered state-mandated core courses," Ray Carter reports.

Inaction on parental choice is impossible

An overwhelming 74% of GOP primary voters believe the money should follow the child.

[Guest post by Jonathan Small]

Oklahoma parents are demanding parental school choice and lawmakers are paying attention.

A new poll by Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates (CHS) found 61% of Oklahoma voters support school choice, which was defined as “the right to use tax dollars raised for their child’s education to send their child to the school of their choice whether it is public, private, online, or charter.”

Among Republicans primary voters, support reached 74%. Support was consistent in both urban and rural areas.

That strong support is no surprise, especially considering ongoing public-school closures. Those closures are wreaking havoc and destroying opportunity. This is evident in increased failure rates in academic courses and significant learning loss.

In August, an official from Tulsa Public Schools even told the State Board of Education that district officials expected “that our least-reached students will have lost approximately a year more learning than would have otherwise been the case because of the COVID-related interruptions. So if I’m a student who might otherwise have been predicted to be two years below grade level, we’re anticipating that that student will now be approximately three years below grade level.”

Some school officials now want to end state testing, ensuring parents will not be notified of a child’s learning loss.

Oklahomans’ support for school choice is not tied solely to COVID-19. Polls have found strong support for parental school choice repeatedly since 2014. And Oklahoma’s political leaders have embraced it.

In January 2019, House Speaker Charles McCall said lawmakers “must put parents back in charge of their children’s education and give underprivileged families more options and more opportunity to thrive.”

This year Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat endorsed raising the cap on Oklahoma’s tax-credit scholarship program, saying, “Where there are kids that lack opportunity, my heart pains for them. We need to make sure they are not forgotten.”

Gov. Kevin Stitt endorsed school choice in his 2020 State of the State speech, saying, “Let’s work together to make sure all students at all schools have access to an innovative, enriching curriculum, regardless of ZIP code.”

Yet, despite public support and the backing of legislative leaders, the bidding was done of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, socialist Bernie Sanders, and the OEA/NEA union, which heavily opposed both school choice and President Trump and instead backed Biden and Kendra Horn.

Thankfully for the most vulnerable, there is now no reason for delay. In addition to public support, GOP lawmakers also have the numbers on their side. Republicans now hold 82 of the 101 seats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and 39 of the 48 seats in the Oklahoma Senate. It takes only 51 and 25 votes, respectively, to pass a bill in each chamber.

With this favorable environment for saving the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable through significant expansions of parental school choice, inaction will be impossible.

Why is Epic popular?

[Guest post by Jonathan Small]

Ask the average citizen what they know about Epic Charter Schools, an online public K-12 school, and you’ll typically hear two responses. First, the school’s critics are vocal, fierce, and determined to shut down Epic, and second, the school is increasingly popular among parents.

Some will consider those two facts incompatible. Why would parents flock to a school that is constantly under fire from bureaucrats and teacher unions who regularly remind us they know better than the rest of us? The answer is simple. Because parents believe that Epic provides a better educational product than many local brick-and-mortar schools, particularly in the state’s urban centers. If Epic’s back-end business functions have been questioned by a flawed state audit that encouraged Epic to make inaccurate calculations, that’s of little concern to parents focused on the welfare of their child.

One parent of an Epic student, addressing members of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, put it bluntly: “A lot of the parents that are inside Epic think that brick-and-mortar schools are mad because they’ve had too many kids pulled from them and they’re losing too much money and they’re trying to get Epic shut down.”

Due in part to COVID-19 and the continued closure of many physical school sites, along with the bad-to-terrible online alternatives provided by local districts, families have flocked to Epic this year. The district now serves more than 61,000 students—all of whom proactively chose the school—making Epic Oklahoma’s largest school by enrollment.

The demand for Epic’s services shows parents desire parental school choice. Those who feel Epic has gained an outsized role are often people who oppose parental school choice. But if we truly care about parents and families having access to the school they believe best meets their student’s needs, we need to increase the length of the school-choice menu.

Lawmakers should provide families the ability to use their tax funding at any school of their choice. If a local district won’t provide in-person instruction, allow families to transfer to other districts or private schools without restriction or penalty. When a local district is failing to educate children, let families use tax dollars for private-school enrollment. When a district refuses to stop bullying, let a child choose from a wide range of online, charter, public, and private school options.

Consumer choice and competition generate improvement in all other fields. They can do the same thing in education. But right now many families have only two choices: the local traditional school or a statewide online charter school.

The great challenge in education today is not whether Epic used the proper accounting codes for administrative expenses (the main allegation contained in the flawed state audit), but the fact that tens of thousands of families have demonstrated a strong desire for a greater array of parental school choice options for their children.