Oklahoma Test Scores Stunted by Teacher Strike

Not that this is a surprise as Oklahoma had slipped to #47 in the nation last year, but early reports are saying that Oklahoma public school test scores are coming back low and there is little debate to as what caused the drop in scores.

Some say that the guidelines given to the teachers and students doesn't align with the actual tests. The testing system is one of the last legacies of the Obama administration, created in 2015 and rolled out in 2017. State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister supported the 2015 federal education law called ESSA.

Linda Murphy is challenging Hofmeister in the June 26^th Republican primary for the state superintendent job. Murphy is a teacher, certified for 30 years, who taught in public schools in Caddo and Osage counties. She has been active in education political circles and helped defeat Outcome Based Education in 1995 and Common Core state standards in 2014. She believes that a top down education system is doomed to failure and that local control by the school districts is the way to go.

Still the students were ill served by being used as hostages by the Teachers Unions in April. Parents were saddled with emergency child care costs as well with many scrambling to find daytime child care for the younger kids and absorbing the costs, which would be as high as $300.00 per week per child. The kids were out of school for two crucial weeks, disrupting their schedules, disrupting their studies, ensuring that the test scores came out low again all in the name of returning to the legislature to beg and extort more tax dollars to fix the low test scores.

The reality is that the kids are not the product of the public school system; they are the means to perpetuate the failing public education system that burns half of the tax dollars outside the classroom and serves as a retirement job for ex legislators and teachers. With 65% of all students failing in basic competency in math, science, and reading the public school system is against any means of accountability, even calling testing useless. What one can't measure cannot be controlled, without testing to show the knowledge learned how could one possibly know if the students were progressing or should we just wait to watch the seniors fail the exit testing and fail another generation of kids?

One thing is for sure, we need new talent in the state superintendent position. Hofmeister colluded with the teacher unions and Democrats to win last time and she has done a miserable job. You can learn more about Linda Murphy at her website and Facebook page.