Every Friday Stand for Children Oklahoma Will Share with You What’S Happening Under the Dome at 23Rd and Lincoln in Regards to All K-12 Education Legislation
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Hello, Education Insiders! Every Friday Stand for Children Oklahoma will share with you what’s happening under the dome at 23rd and Lincoln in regards to all K-12 education legislation. If you have any questions, please contact our operations coordinator, Amy Stinnett, at [email protected], or Gwendolyn Caldwell, our government affairs director, at [email protected]. If you’d like to join us as a strong voice for education this session, please visit http://stand.org/oklahoma/ to see how you can help each child in Oklahoma receive a world-class education. A multitude of education advocates rallied at the Capitol on Monday urging the legislature to reduce testing and place a higher value on having quality teachers in every classroom. Meanwhile, NPR has been carrying out an education reporting series, and on Monday Professor Richard Ingersoll shared research he’s been conducting about why teachers leave the profession and the incurred costs to school districts as a result of the high turnover rate. Ginnie Graham did a piece this week on Ingersoll’s findings and how they relate to the education landscape in Oklahoma – most importantly, the conclusion that lack of a voice is the number one factor driving teachers into other fields. Stand is in the midst of collecting stories from Oklahomans across the state about their favorite teachers. Because, let’s be honest, we’d be hard-pressed to find a single person who can’t think of a teacher that made a difference in their life. These stories will be integrated into our #TeachersMatterOK campaign – the goal of which is to restore respect to the teaching profession and offer teachers a place at the table when it comes to policies that affect their classrooms. We’d love to hear from you about a standout teacher in your life. I’ve already shared my story and encourage you to do the same. Please feel free to email your story to me at [email protected]. Oklahoma governor signs bill barring payroll deductions for teachers unions Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill into law Thursday that will prohibit school districts from automatically deducting dues from teachers’ paychecks for the Oklahoma Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Oklahoma Says Policy Monitoring Social Media Excludes Students State education officials said Oklahoma’s new testing vendor “is absolutely not” tracking students on the Internet when monitoring social media in accordance with the state’s contract. Ginnie Graham: Not having input is a top reason teachers leave jobs Salary is not the main thing. It's important, but not the main thing. And that's an important finding because the teaching force is so large — it's now America's largest occupation — that raising everyone's salaries is a very expensive proposition. Oklahoma schools are not turning out enough workers to fill highly skilled state jobs, according to new report. Oklahoma schools are producing only half the workers needed for high-skilled state jobs that require formal learning, a trend that could result in more than 500,000 such jobs going unfilled by Oklahomans by 2020, according to a new report. Right Thinking: Defeating the coalition of the mediocre A toxic coalition of the left and right, if not soon stopped, will destroy the progress we have made. The left, ignoring the record of the last 40 years, demands that we spend more money on the existing system, repeal our paltry measures of performance, and kill school choice. The right, oblivious to our history of academic mediocrity, recoils both at importing rigorous standards from high-achieving states and teaching parents that successful institutions don’t promote students who can’t read or award high school diplomas to students who haven’t proven they have mastered the core curriculum. A significant number of fearful and unprincipled legislators pander to the worst instincts of both. Business community wants best for Oklahoma kids Businesses want to hire critical thinkers, people who can collaborate and problem-solve and be innovative. The success of a business depends on the quality of its workforce and nothing costs a company more than its human capital. Without quality employees, a company is doomed to fail. Three Questions for Teachers, Lawmakers Oklahoma Watch posed two questions to various teachers at Monday's rally at the State Capitol, and one question to several legislators inside, and then recorded their answers on video. Teachers, Parents Renew Call For More Education Funding 2 Thousands of teachers, administrators, parents and students rallied at the Oklahoma Capitol Monday calling for better education funding. The rally marked the second consecutive year residents marched. Many in attendance said it was clear to them that lawmakers did not listen last year. Tulsa World Editorial: Thousands head to Oklahoma City Monday to demand better school policy and funding The Oklahoma PTA with support from the Oklahoma Educational Coalition has called another mass rally for Monday. Oklahoma PTA President Jeffrey Corbett has predicted an even more massive turnout — 50,000 supporters. That would truly be an unprecedented achievement, although, frankly, we don’t see it happening. Charter school plan for Oklahoma City has supporters, detractors Oklahoma state Sen. David Holt has proposed giving Oklahoma City the authority to sponsor charter schools. He says Senate Bill 68 is about “empowering cities” and about protecting the investment residents and businesses have made to revive Oklahoma City over the past two decades. Oklahoma schools superintendent: Bold leadership sought to tackle teacher shortage Having a high-quality teacher for one year, they concluded, increases a child’s cumulative lifetime income by $80,000. I am asking for bold leadership and that collectively we find a way this year to give each Oklahoma student an effective teacher for every classroom. Where there’s the will, there’s a way. Poll: Public strongly supports Joy Hofmeister's plan for teacher pay raises Shortly after state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister announced her proposal to increase base pay by $5,000 and the school year by five days over the next five years, almost 86 percent of all Oklahomans — and almost 94 percent of Tulsans — told SoonerPoll.com they liked the proposal. Oklahoma City school district reorganizes, drops four administrative positions Tamie Sanders, executive director of secondary schools; Patricia Watson-Hunt, executive director of elementary schools and Wilbur House, executive director of elementary curriculum were told Friday their positions would be cut. A fourth position, executive director of secondary curriculum, is vacant. We’re tracking hundreds of bills that will impact the success of Oklahoma students this session. But we’re paying especially close attention to a list of bills we’re calling our “Watch List.” As the session progresses, we’ll be updating the list as needed, but wanted you Education Insiders to be in the know. STATUS: S Referred to 2nd Committee COMMITTEE(1): S Appropriations 3 SUMMARY: Requires the State Board of Education to administer a valid and reliable criterion-referenced test that measures only reading proficiency and not proficiency in the language arts to determine the promotion and retention of third grade students pursuant to the Reading Sufficiency Act. (Amended by House, Stricken Title) STATUS: S Referred to 2nd Committee COMMITTEE(1): S Appropriations SUMMARY: Establishes the School District Unfunded-Mandate Relief Program which will be administered by the State Board of Education to empower locally elected school district boards of education to avoid unfunded and underfunded state imposed mandates created by state law and associated State Board of Education rules. The bill requires that a school district will be deregulated from certain unfunded or underfunded mandates and associated State Board of Education rules places on upon the school district by the Legislature upon approval of the state board. The bill requires the State Board of Education rules, the amount of funding necessary to implement each mandate and associated State Board of Education rule, and the current level of funding provided by the Oklahoma Legislature to implement each mandate and associated State Board of Education rule. The bill requires the list to be approved by the State Board of Education no later than on Feb. 1 of each fiscal year. The bill provides that a state mandate will be deemed underfunded if the level of funding provided by the Legislature is at or below 75% of the funding necessary to implement the mandate as determined by the State Board of Education and to be deemed unfunded if the level of funding provided by the Legislature is at 0% of the funding necessary to implement the mandate as determined by the State Board of Education. The bill clarifies self-referential language. It also expands the scope of school boards exempted from the provisions listed therein. (Amended by House, Emergency Measure, Committee Substitute) STATUS: S General Order SUMMARY: Adds alternative methods for satisfactorily demonstrating mastery of state academic content standards in certain subject areas listed within the bill in relation to the end-of-instruction criterion-reference tests. (Amended by House, Stricken Title) STATUS: Second Reading – Referred to Senate Committee COMMITTEE(1): S Rules SUMMARY: Requires the members on a board of education to appoint members if, after the filing period closes, no candidate has filed and a vacancy is created. The bill allows appointment of members outside of the board or election district but requires the individual to reside in the school district and to meet other eligibility qualifications. 4 STATUS: S General Order SUMMARY: Provides that teacher compensation does not include one-time incentive pay that is provided by the school district to a teacher not one-time retention incentive pay for returning a second year and exempts the pay from a negotiated agreement.