Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed an executive order yesterday that they say will prevent Federal overreach and protect student privacy.
Her order in part reads:
1. The Federal Government shall not have any input in the formulation of the Oklahoma Academic Standards or the assessments used to determine student performance.
2. The State of Oklahoma will be exclusively responsible for deciding the assessment methodology to be used to measure student performance.
3. Local school districts may, at their own discretion, adopt additional supplementary assessments to measure educational progress.
4. All agencies of the State of Oklahoma will aggressively oppose any attempt by the Federal Government to force the state to adopt standards that do not reflect Oklahoma values.
5. The Oklahoma Academic Standards will not jeopardize the privacy of any Oklahoma student or citizen. Local school districts and the Oklahoma State Department of Education shall refrain from collecting or reporting student information in a manner that would, in any way, violate state or federal laws intended to protect student and family privacy.
6. The Oklahoma Academic Standards affect only K-12 public schools. Home schools and homeschooled children are not under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Education and are not affected by the implementation of any standards adopted by the State, including the Oklahoma Academic Standards.
This does nothing to address concerns the Common Core State Standards. Unless the Federal government comes in tomorrow and says, “Oklahoma you need to adopt these ____ standards,” it is meaningless. Oklahoma already succumbed to the Federal carrots and sticks so to say after the fact “oh we won’t allow the Feds to do this…” (unless they offer us enough money or a NCLB waiver that is). Also the student privacy language is meaningless with the weakening of FERPA.
This is not worth the paper its written on. Smoke and mirrors folks, and Oklahoma residents should call Governor Fallin on it.
Photo credit: Office of the Governor of Oklahoma (Public Domain)