Oklahoma’s New Standards Need to Go Back to the Drawing Board

Oklahoma parents and activists are currently experiencing what we’ve seen in other states. A Common Core repeal or rewrite bill was passed, but the end result were substandard standards or a Common Core rebrand. I initially held out hope for Oklahoma, but it looks like there are issues with Oklahoma’s new draft standards.

Jenni White at Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment wrote that the new standards had these following issues that were addressed by people reviewing the standards.

ELA:

• Vague; uses imprecise terminology
• Not measurable or precise; not easily testable
• Needs more work on glossary of terms
• Needs examples of literary texts at each grade level
• Needs reading/writing lists of Oklahoma authors
• Needs reading material from the founding documents
• Needs student exemplar writing samples

Math:

• Too much overlap of standards across grades; lack of focus on alignment
• Needs specific examples of problems
• Need much more work on glossary of terms
• Needs resources for teachers to utilize

White goes on to share how the new standards do not conform to Oklahoma’s Common Core Repeal Law.

White states that these standards need to be fixed before the Legislature can approve them. They also have to act before March 23 or the standards will go into effect. White recommends that Oklahoma continues to use their current PASS standards while the Oklahoma State Board of Education works on a further revision.

We encourage you to contact your legislator today and encourage them to vote to send these standards back to the Oklahoma State Board of Education.