Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplas
January 30, 2025
OKLAHOMA CITY — As national testing again ranks Oklahoma in the bottom 10 for academic results, lawmakers on Wednesday debated whether the state is headed in the right direction or is pursuing policies that distract from better outcomes.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released 2024 reading and math results from every state Wednesday. The NAEP tests showed Oklahoma was among the lowest-performing states in the country, had no significant progress since 2022 and still has not reached pre-pandemic performance.
The same day as the NAEP release, lawmakers at the state Capitol heard a budget presentation from the head of Oklahoma’s public education system, Superintendent Ryan Walters, who said his administration is making a difference for schools and students by funding teacher recruitment efforts, literacy programs and high-dosage tutoring.
But, House Democrats said Walters has spent too much time focusing on divisive rhetoric rather than school needs.
“We saw some rosy pronouncements. We saw a lot of hand waving about educational performance improvements,” Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City, said after the budget hearing. “The sad reality is year-over-year scores did not improve, and we saw that confirmed in the release this week of the NAEP scores.”
A spokesperson for Walters did not return a request for comment on Oklahoma’s NAEP results. Walters didn’t discuss it either during his budget hearing even when a Republican lawmaker asked how Oklahoma compares to other states in education.
“We are still not where we need to be in math, reading and ACT (scores),” Walters said during the hearing in the House chamber. “I believe what we’ve got to continue to do is continue to aggressively help the schools in the bottom 5% (of the state).”
Improving scores from the lowest-performing students corresponded with an overall upward swing in national test results through the mid-1990s and early 2000s, officials from the National Center for Education Statistics said in a NAEP town hall Wednesday. The 2024 results, though, show the gap is widening between the top and bottom performers.
Walters also touted a new rule that would penalize a school district if more than half of its students score below a basic performance level in reading and math. His administration proposed the rule, and Gov. Kevin Stitt signed it into law last year.
“We’ve got to continue to move forward with reforms that are focused on student outcomes,” Walters told lawmakers.
He asked for an extra $1 million to support a new program mentoring early career teachers and another $4 million to meet demand for teacher maternity leave.
Walters’ policy priorities divide lawmakers
But, Walters’ request to spend $3 million on Bibles for classrooms came under question from members of both political parties.
Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, noted multiple versions of the Bible are available for free online, and Rep. Michelle McCane, D-Tulsa, questioned whether $3 million could be better spent on literacy or early childhood programs.
Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, R-Piedmont, asked why the state couldn’t seek out donated Bibles rather than buying them with taxpayer funds. Rep. Cynthia Roe, R-Lindsay, said she worried whether inviting the Bible into classrooms might open a door to the Quran, Wicca, atheists and “other religions outside of Christianity.”
Walters said the Bible should be physically present in classrooms, along with the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, to help contextualize American history.
His pursuit of requiring proof of U.S. citizenship in public school enrollment also came under fire at the Capitol on Wednesday in multiple Democrat-led news conferences.
Members of the Legislature’s Latino Caucus said the idea could drive up chronic absenteeism rates among immigrant students, whose families are fearful of the state superintendent’s support of immigration enforcement in schools. Alabama saw a similar trend when it enacted a law in 2011 to check students’ immigration status.
“Walters accusing immigrants of being the one to overburden our system is exactly the opposite of the truth,” Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, D-Oklahoma City, said. “It is him that’s overburdening our schools by bringing these political issues into the classroom.”
Some of Walters’ fellow Republicans, though, praised the state superintendent’s work on improving academic results. The head of the House subcommittee on education funding, Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, thanked Walters during Wednesday’s budget hearing for his work “to move our state forward.”
The subcommittee’s vice chair, Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, even joined Walters’ news release Wednesday to compliment his budget request.
“We appreciate Superintendent Walters’ dedication to our students and proven programs like high-dosage tutoring,” Hasenbeck said in her statement. “He has proven that he is willing to go to bat, time and time again, for Oklahoma’s teachers, parents, students and school safety.”
OKLAHOMA CITY — As national testing again ranks Oklahoma in the bottom 10 for academic results, lawmakers on Wednesday debated whether the state is headed in the right direction or is pursuing policies that distract from better outcomes.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released 2024 reading and math results from every state Wednesday. The NAEP tests showed Oklahoma was among the lowest-performing states in the country, had no significant progress since 2022 and still has not reached pre-pandemic performance.
The same day as the NAEP release, lawmakers at the state Capitol heard a budget presentation from the head of Oklahoma’s public education system, Superintendent Ryan Walters, who said his administration is making a difference for schools and students by funding teacher recruitment efforts, literacy programs and high-dosage tutoring.
But, House Democrats said Walters has spent too much time focusing on divisive rhetoric rather than school needs.
“We saw some rosy pronouncements. We saw a lot of hand waving about educational performance improvements,” Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City, said after the budget hearing. “The sad reality is year-over-year scores did not improve, and we saw that confirmed in the release this week of the NAEP scores.”
A spokesperson for Walters did not return a request for comment on Oklahoma’s NAEP results. Walters didn’t discuss it either during his budget hearing even when a Republican lawmaker asked how Oklahoma compares to other states in education.
“We are still not where we need to be in math, reading and ACT (scores),” Walters said during the hearing in the House chamber. “I believe what we’ve got to continue to do is continue to aggressively help the schools in the bottom 5% (of the state).”
Improving scores from the lowest-performing students corresponded with an overall upward swing in national test results through the mid-1990s and early 2000s, officials from the National Center for Education Statistics said in a NAEP town hall Wednesday. The 2024 results, though, show the gap is widening between the top and bottom performers.
Walters also touted a new rule that would penalize a school district if more than half of its students score below a basic performance level in reading and math. His administration proposed the rule, and Gov. Kevin Stitt signed it into law last year.
“We’ve got to continue to move forward with reforms that are focused on student outcomes,” Walters told lawmakers.
He asked for an extra $1 million to support a new program mentoring early career teachers and another $4 million to meet demand for teacher maternity leave.
Walters’ policy priorities divide lawmakers
But, Walters’ request to spend $3 million on Bibles for classrooms came under question from members of both political parties.
Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, noted multiple versions of the Bible are available for free online, and Rep. Michelle McCane, D-Tulsa, questioned whether $3 million could be better spent on literacy or early childhood programs.
Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, R-Piedmont, asked why the state couldn’t seek out donated Bibles rather than buying them with taxpayer funds. Rep. Cynthia Roe, R-Lindsay, said she worried whether inviting the Bible into classrooms might open a door to the Quran, Wicca, atheists and “other religions outside of Christianity.”
Walters said the Bible should be physically present in classrooms, along with the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, to help contextualize American history.
His pursuit of requiring proof of U.S. citizenship in public school enrollment also came under fire at the Capitol on Wednesday in multiple Democrat-led news conferences.
Members of the Legislature’s Latino Caucus said the idea could drive up chronic absenteeism rates among immigrant students, whose families are fearful of the state superintendent’s support of immigration enforcement in schools. Alabama saw a similar trend when it enacted a law in 2011 to check students’ immigration status.
“Walters accusing immigrants of being the one to overburden our system is exactly the opposite of the truth,” Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, D-Oklahoma City, said. “It is him that’s overburdening our schools by bringing these political issues into the classroom.”
Some of Walters’ fellow Republicans, though, praised the state superintendent’s work on improving academic results. The head of the House subcommittee on education funding, Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, thanked Walters during Wednesday’s budget hearing for his work “to move our state forward.”
The subcommittee’s vice chair, Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, even joined Walters’ news release Wednesday to compliment his budget request.
“We appreciate Superintendent Walters’ dedication to our students and proven programs like high-dosage tutoring,” Hasenbeck said in her statement. “He has proven that he is willing to go to bat, time and time again, for Oklahoma’s teachers, parents, students and school safety.”
Oklahoma ranks toward the bottom in reading, math scores
Underscoring the day’s proceedings is yet another bottom-10 ranking for Oklahoma education. NAEP assessments, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, found Oklahoma showed no significant improvement since the previous round of national testing in 2022.
NAEP has been testing fourth and eighth graders across the country since 1992.
In NAEP’s 2024 results, Oklahoma ranked 47th in fourth-grade reading and 48th in eighth-grade reading. Oklahoma fourth graders ranked 44th and its eighth graders 45th for math proficiency.
Christy Hovanetz, a senior policy fellow at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, speaks at a panel about school accountability during the foundation’s national summit at the Omni Hotel in Oklahoma City on Nov. 14. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
The state’s reading scores indicate students are about a full grade level behind where fourth and eighth graders were before the COVID-19 pandemic, said Christy Hovanetz, a school accountability expert at the education-focused think tank ExcelinEd.
Oklahoma’s decision this year to reduce its own expectations for student performance on state-administered tests won’t help, she said. The state quietly lowered the bar in 2024 for students to reach a proficient score on its yearly exams for reading and math.
States that shot up the NAEP rankings in recent years, like Mississippi, have done so by maintaining high expectations for students and schools, Hovanetz said.
She said Oklahoma also must ensure it has a qualified teacher workforce that is trained in the science of reading. That’s an issue Walters has put money behind to improve.
“I just don’t want to see us saying this is all we should be expecting of our kids, knowing that 10 years ago we were getting a lot more from them,” Hovanetz said. “We know what works. We know how to do it. It’s just not easy, but it’s time to start implementing some of those tougher reforms again.”
Reporter Emma Murphy contributed to this report.
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.
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