Though not included in their department email press releases for the week, the Oklahoma State Department of Education, under the direction of Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, have filed a waiver with the United States Department of Education (USDE) to absolve her department from having to follow at least one section of the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), for now.
This last week has been an exciting one in the life of the Oklahoma Academic Standards (OAS). Here's what you need to know.
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.
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,
