Joint legislative committee to review report critical of state’s common education system

OKLAHOMA CITY — Members of the state House and Senate education committees will hold a joint meeting today to review a recent national study which gave Oklahoma a “D” in education.

The meeting, set for 9 a.m. in the Senate chamber, will examine a study produced by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Known as “Leaders and Laggards: State Report Cards,” the chamber’s study criticized Oklahoma in eight of nine areas and assigned school-like grades to those areas. The report gave the state’s education system a “D” overall and listed eight other areas which were below average including:

• An “F” in academic achievement;

• A “D” in academic achievement for low income and minority students;

• A “C” for return on investment;

• An “F” for truth in advertising about student proficiency;

• A “C” on rigor of standards;

• A “D” for postsecondary and workforce readiness;

• A “C” on flexibility in management and policy;

• A “D” for data quality.

The only area, the study reported, where Oklahoma received an above average grade was in the category of 21st century teaching force — there, the state received an “A.”

State Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson, R-Oklahoma City, said the report “was a wake up call for this state.”

“If we really want to be competitive in the quest for attracting high-paying jobs to Oklahoma, we need to know the national perspective of our educational system. Education is an essential component to economic development and growth, and we can’t ignore what the national research says about how Oklahoma compares with the rest of the nation,” she said.

Wilcoxson, whose district includes the Moore area, is the Republican co-chair of the Senate’s Education Committee. Tulsa Senator Judy Eason McIntyre serves as the Democratic co-chair of the committee.

“For years we’ve heard this same type of information from groups such as the Fordham Foundation,” Wilcoxson said. “Now that it’s coming from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, people are listening.”

Receiving an “F” in academic achievement, she said, “well, that’s just frightening.”

In addition to the chamber’s report, Wilcoxson said former Republican gubernatorial candidate Burns Hargis, vice chairman of Bank of Oklahoma, will discuss the perspective of Oklahoma business leaders on education issues. The meeting also will include a presentation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and a report from the U.S. Department of Education on state implementation and compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act.

However, some state education leaders question the chamber’s findings and the nature of the joint meeting.

Moore Association of Classroom Teachers president Jill Dudley said the U.S. Chamber study proves data can be manipulated. “I’ve not ever seen anything that group put out that had any validity,” Dudley said. “It’s obvious, they have an agenda.”

Other studies, Dudley said, paint a much different picture of Oklahoma’s educational system.

“A survey from Oklahoma Commission on Educational Administration shows that people in our state feel we’re on the right track with education,” she said. “Plus, there are definite issues between state standards and national standards; and that’s because our educational standards are not necessarily aligned with national ones.”

Federal standards and state standards, Dudley said, don’t always align.

“Whenever I see something like the U.S Chamber, and they’re trying to compare us on national standards, I know there are issues. School teachers are teaching to state standards and we have very good state standards.”

Dudley said the report — and the committee meeting — are biased.

“I’ve reviewed a summary of this study,” she said. “And it kinda astounds me that they can generate the results that they do. Everything else, the data that we have, shows otherwise. We are far ahead of the curve on national standards.”

Wilcoxson countered, saying the state’s educational system has continued to decline.

“The reality is that we’ve gone down in the past 10 years. We have to compete on a national level, but it’s obvious that our state department (of education) doesn’t have a lot of respect for the national assessment.”

And the U.S. Chamber’s study, she said, is an example of those problems.

“I don’t know why they would pick on Oklahoma. All of the states take this test. There’s no agenda.”

But Dudley said the national comparisons don’t work.

“It’s all just a matter of whose mark you’re trying to measure up to,” she said. “Are you trying to measure up to your state or somebody in Washington?”