A Chronology Of The Oklahoma Academic Standards Review Process

This last week has been an exciting one in the life of the Oklahoma Academic Standards (OAS).  Here's what you need to know.

• The public began making comment on the new OAS after the release of the first draft in June of 2015.  ROPE also began following the process, writing numerous blogs containing reviews and comments of the OAS throughout the process.   

• OSDE released four drafts of the OAS along with standards experts and community reviews through January 8th, 2016.

Lies and Truths About ROPE and the Oklahoma Academic Standards

ROPE can be demonized for commenting on the new Oklahoma Academic Standards but that doesn't change the fact that national experts and Oklahoma reviewers have commented that the standards need fixing.  This fact is contained in reviews on the OSDE website for all to read.  If legislators, the Governor, and the education community choose to ignore the identified "fixes" to the standards that make them better BEFORE they're implemented, it seems reasonable then, not to complain if falling student performance follows.

Many comments have been made to our Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment Facebook page (and elsewhere across the internet) since we came out with a report containing the problems identified by at least 13 reviewers of the new Oklahoma Academic Standards from the first draft to the fourth and followed that with a report detailing at least 7 ways in which the new standards violated HB3399 (the Common Core repeal bill).  Unfortunately, many of these are blatant untruths perpetuated on social media.  In order to set the record straight and educate interested individuals, the following information is provided.

Governor Fallin Appointed Oklahoma State Board of Education Member Publicly Calls Dr. Sandra Stotsky, "...an arrogant miscreant"

      

Oklahoma State Board of Education member General Baxter, in a statement posted to social media and re-posted inside the blog, Oklahoma Education Truths (General Baxter Says It Even Better), said,

Ways In Which Oklahoma's New Standards (OAS) Do Not Conform To CC Repeal Law

or Save Our Standards Part 2

After studying the Oklahoma Academic Standards (OAS) reviews posted on the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) website, I produced a document that listed the consistent issues brought up by reviewers over the course of the four draft standards documents produced by the OAS writing teams.

There were 13 separate standards reviewers outside the OSDE that contributed reviews posted to the OSDE website.**  These are as follows:

Repealing Common Core Means Nothing If Oklahoma’s New Academic Standards Are Not Better than Common Core

Restore Oklahoma Public Education (now Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment) concluded a near five year odyssey dedicated to the task of repealing the Common Core State Standards in our state, when the ink from Governor Fallin’s pen dried on HB3399 in June 2014.  

As directed by the bill, the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) was to immediately begin the process of creating new educational standards for English/Language Arts and Mathematics to replace the Common Core Standards adopted by the Oklahoma State Board of Education as directed by SB2033 in 2010. The final drafts of the new standards were to be completed by the OSDE in August of 2016 with copies presented to the Oklahoma legislature prior to the February start of that year’s legislative session.