Or do they?

Oklahoma students’ average ACT score for 2010 was 20.7–the same as last year.  The national average is 21.

According to a report, Oklahoma’s ACT score remained stable due to an increase in science scores accompanied by a decrease in reading and English scores.  Mathematics scores were flat. 

But is the fact that scores haven’t improved bad news?  Not necessarily. 

This year 1,289 additional students took the ACT, an increase of nearly 5%.  When you consider this, the score trend doesn’t seem so disappointing.   Adding more students into the pool of test takers tends to lower the score average because you’re now likely getting a lot of students who are just thinking of attending college for the first time in their life.  Those students generally don’t perform as well as students who have been preparing for college since their freshman year.

The other bright spot is that Oklahoma’s African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans all scored higher than their national counterparts.  This includes a 30% increase in Hispanics’ scores.

To remain economically competitive, Oklahomans must send more high school students to college or higher education of some sort.  Oklahoma has an astonishingly low number of college graduates in the state.  Only 20% of our people have at least a Bachelor’s degree, compared to the national average of 24%. 

We’re getting a new Superintendent this year.  Let’s choose wisely and pick one who will focus on improving students achievement and our college-ready and workforce-ready status.

Former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys went before the Oklahoma City School Board on Monday and proposed a new charter school for downtown Oklahoma City.  The new school would be constructed with MAPS for Kids money and accept a variety of students, ranging from those residing downtown to those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“I think it’s a real opportunity for Oklahoma City Public Schools to cooperate with a motivated group that has the wallet and the influence,” Humphreys said. “I think it’s unprecedented, and to do that in a cooperative way, where we’re in it together, this can be a real success for our school district.”

Humphreys’ group formed OKC Quality Schools, Inc., a nonprofit organization, to begin the process of applying for a charter.

Humphreys said he expected the charter school to eventually move into facilities to be constructed by the district with money from MAPS for Kids, through which voters approved an $8.8 million elementary school to be built downtown.

Judging by the comments in the NewsOK.com and comments made elsewhere, liberals are up in arms over the proposal.  They say the charter school would simply be used for corporate executives and wealthy students and that Humphreys stands to benefit financially from a new charter school.  In addition to ignoring the proposal’s aim to bring in disadvantaged, poorer students to the charter school, opponents present no evidence for their conspiracy theories regarding Humphreys.

But given the state of the anti-school choice side’s continually weakening position,  reliance on conspiracy theories shouldn’t be surprising.  Congrats to Mayor Humphreys and his partners in moving this proposition forward.

According to the Talequah Daily Press, Democrat state Senator Jim Wilson reportedly accused many teachers of not caring about their students or the education system.

“Wilson said too many teachers in the state’s education system do it simply to make a living, no necessarily because they are passionate about educating young people.”

Statements like this, especially from a Democrat, drive the unions nuts, but only because they’re true. Politicians love to talk about how we have some of the best teachers in Oklahoma. True enough. We have some of the best. But we also have a lot of the worst and the mediocre.

(via Brandon Dutcher)

Democrats tried to defeat a Republican bill that would require Oklahoma high school students to take four years of math.  Currently, they are only required to take three.  Senator James Halligan asked the question many of us have been wondering for a long time: “Why do we give (high school students) a diploma if we know we’re not adequately preparing them?”

Anyone who has been in our high schools recently knows that we are not properly preparing our students.  Most of them can’t write, too many can’t read, and a lot can’t perform the most basic of math computations.  If they do go to college (and an embarrassingly low number do go to college), then they are forced to take remedial courses that waste their time and their money because they should have already learned the stuff in high school.

If you doubt the proposition that our students aren’t prepared, take a look here or here.  Only 23% of students were rated as proficient or better in math.  23%!

Kenneth Corn’s response is among the dumbest responses I could imagine.  It basically amounted to “Oh yeah?  Well not every student goes to college. Some go to Career Tech.”  As if that means they don’t need to know basic math skills!  Somehow, requiring more Oklahoma students to learn these basic math skills equates to “casting them aside” in Corn’s book. Actually, what it does is better prepare our citizens for a rapidly globalizing and technology heavy economy.   And this guy wants to be lieutenant governor.

Read the reader comments at the end of that story and you’ll get a better idea of why our state is in trouble.  Unfortunately, too many of in our state can’t understand the value of a good education and aren’t willing to push for it.

Democrat Senator Tom Ivester wants the Bible taught in public schools. And today his effort to make that a reality has passed one hurdle.  The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education approved Ivester’s bill that would allow schools to offer an elective course on the Bible. According to Ivester, the courses would focus on the historical context of the book.

My question is this: why would any Christian (or any religious person) want the Bible (or any holy book) taught in our public schools by teachers who are likely incompetent on the subject?  This is a contradiction I’ve never understood from advocates of more religious instruction in our public schools.  We recognize our public school system is an unmitigated failure in many respects, including teacher subject competency, yet we want them to provide instruction to our children on an important aspect of our culture we acknowledge few (if any) teachers would be competent to provide.  Perhaps religious instruction is best left to the experts–in church.

Interesting news today from KRMG News Talk Radio in Tulsa:

Tulsa Public Schools is considering pay raises for administrators. Superintendent Keith Ballard says, even with a $3.5 million budget deficit, pay raises of up to 30-percent were already promised and it would not be right to take it back. Ballard issued this warning last month. He said, “If this budget plays out the way I have forecast it today, there absolutely will be loss of jobs, there absolutely will be layoffs.”

What kind of fantasy world are these bureaucrats living in? Facing a deficit and layoffs, a responsible Superintendent would ensure their resources were spent in the classroom, on teachers, students and supplies. And any administrator that genuinely cared about the students would accept a deferred pay raise.

Even worse, it was Tulsa Public Schools that used taxpayer dollars last year to file a lawsuit to stop charter schools because, “Officials say it would divert money from public schools.” By which, we assume, they meant their promised pay raise.

Unfortunately, seeing this kind of leadership makes it no surprise that Tulsa Public Schools graduates only 58% of students in four years, compared to 88% in nearby Jenks.

Today the Oklahoma City School Board voted to amend official policy to protect gay and lesbian students from bullying or harassment.  This is the right decision, in our opinion.  Any type of bullying or harassment should not be tolerated in school, no matter if the student is black, white, gay, straight, disabled, or otherwise. School is place Oklahoma’s youth should go to learn and be educated, and they should be able to do that without any fear whatsoever for their safety or social well-being.  Otherwise, what we end up with is entire groups of students who feel ostracized and unwelcome, thereby dramatically decreasing the value of their education. As a result, these students suffer later in life partly because they lack the proper education to succeed in an increasingly competitive world.

Some of our fellow conservatives have voiced concern over the new policy.  They fear this amounts to an endorsement of the gay lifestyle. To us, that’s patently absurd.  As conservatives, we should be naturally skeptical of the role public schools, and thereby government, serve in social engineering and carrying out politically-charged social agendas.  It is important to note that this policy addition does not add any extra or special protection not enjoyed by other students.  This is a simple, common-sense policy that will ensure gay and lesbian students are afforded the exact same protection other students receive.

On the other hand, we understand the criticism voiced by Board member Lyn Watson.  Watson worries that by adding a separate classification of protection for gays and lesbians, we will end up having to create several other classifications for other groups of students.  By further separating and classifying students, Watson argues, we divide the school community and deny them an all-inclusive learning environment.  We agree with Watson on this point, but we also must acknowledge that bullying of gay students is a dangerous reality.  Current policy has done little to stop it, and if explicitly adding in a protection helps end or decrease these acts, then we believe it to be the correct decision.  The inclusive environment Watson wishes for is admirable and just, but will not exist until every student feels welcome to learn without repercussions.  It is our hope this policy will ultimately lead to that inclusive educational environment in which the need to add these specific classifications is unnecessary.

With Back to School sales begining soon and preparations for the new school year underway, okiepundit.com shares Part 2 of the rules from Charles J. Sykes, author of the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, Or Add.

Rule No. 8:   Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life has not! In some schools, they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone’s feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. (See Rule No. 1, Rule No. 2 and Rule No. 4.)

Rule No. 9:   Life is not divided into semesters, and you don’t get summers off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight hours. And you don’t get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on. While we’re at it, very few jobs are interested in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization. (See Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 2.)

Rule No. 10:   Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as most TV characters.

Rule No. 11:   Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.

Rule No. 12:   Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you’re out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That’s what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for “expressing yourself” with purple hair, tattoos and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13:   You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.
Rule No. 14:   Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school’s a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You’re welcome.