State Board of Education approves rule tying school accreditation to student test scores

Several other new permanent rules adopted under the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act were intended to advance State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ political agenda, including to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools and teachers who participate in drag shows and to end automatic approval of training of local school board members by an organization he has criticized, the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.

The most widely impactful rule poses new threats to the status of schools’ annual state accreditation, which authorizes them to continue to operate, if their students don’t perform well enough on state tests in English and math.

Walters told his fellow board members the newly imposed rules “are the exact accountability measures we put on Tulsa.”

Walters initiated state takeover threats against the state’s largest school district in July, and the state board followed suit by approving a list of demands for proof that local leaders can produce rapid, significant improvement in student achievement indicators by the end of the current school year in May.

“These rules we are laying out today are essential. We should have already been doing this,” Walters said. “When we have an accreditation system that doesn’t say anything about how kids are performing, that doesn’t send a message to our districts that that’s what’s important. … I think it is essential in making Oklahoma a more outcomes-based system.”

The proposal calls for a school district to receive an “academic deficiency” if at least half of its students do not score at a basic or better level in English and math on state tests in 2023-24.

If a district receives an academic deficiency, it will receive a downgrade to “accreditation with warning” in 2024-25 if those test results do not improve by at least 5%.

Then if student test results in a district with “accreditation with warning” don’t improve by 5% in 2025-26, the district could be downgraded further to “accreditation with probation.”

Accreditation with probation is, in essence, the State Board of Education’s final warning before a district or charter school could lose its state accreditation and be forced to close.

Once a district has fewer than half of its students testing at a below-basic level in both subjects, its academic deficiency would be lifted.

Accreditation is an annual review process state officials use to determine whether schools have met a host of minimum requirements in order to be allowed to stay open the following year.

For many years, schools could be upgraded or downgraded among five accreditation statuses, depending on how they measured up.

On Thursday, the state board added a new level at the top — accreditation with distinction — to provide new recognition of excellence in compliance.

There was a 90-minute delay in the start of the meeting. Board member Kendra Wesson took Walters’ seat at the head of the board table at 9:30 a.m. and announced that the board lacked a quorum and “would be in recess” until 11 a.m.

Wesson, Walters and fellow board members Zachary Archer and Katie Quebedeaux all entered the room together at 11, and the meeting was called to order. Members Don Burdick and Sarah Lepak were absent.

Tulsa updates board

Walters commended Tulsa Public Schools’ leaders for a third month in a row, despite hearing from them that chronic absenteeism among Tulsa students is up since last month and new progress tests taken in January reveal that 700 students are projected not to be on track yet.

Sean Berkstresser, TPS executive director of information technology and analytics, reported that 43.4% of TPS students are already chronically absent for the 2023-24 school year, up from 40% in late January. That rate represents a 3.8% year-over-year decline, officials said.

Schools are measured on how many students miss 10% or more of the academic year for any reason, including excused absences, because research has repeatedly shown that this kind of chronic absenteeism places students at academic risk.

“If kids are not getting instruction and we are not getting them the recommended dosage on targeted interventions they need, we are not going to see the growth we need,” Berkstresser said.

Among the demands placed on TPS to retain its accreditation is that at least half of its students score at at least basic level on the English language arts portion of state tests this spring or increase the number of students meeting that threshold by at least 5%.

TPS officials shared with the state board that initial projections from their own mid-year testing indicate that 682 students who tested at below basic level on state tests in April 2023 are on track to score at a basic level or better this April.

However, another 700 students are currently short of meeting that demand.

“We’re not yet where we need to be,” Superintendent Ebony Johnson said. “We need to accelerate learning for at least 700 more students to meet the goal. Most of our students are holding steady at their rate of learning, which is comparable to their peers nationwide.”

In an effort to increase student progress, TPS has rolled out a targeted high dosage tutoring program this semester, serving 475 fourth and fifth grade students across 30 sites, and has brought in targeted online tutoring for more than 300 middle school students.

However, even with those additional supports, the district’s continued struggle with chronic absenteeism has compounded the challenge.

“Only 31% of our chronically absent students are projected to score at a basic level or better,” Berkstresser said. “We are focused on academics, but we have underlying issues to contend with, too.”

Walters praised Johnson for being upfront about the challenges that remain at TPS and hailed the work being done at the school sites with the greatest academic deficiencies as “tremendous.”

“On the scores, I think that Tulsa is on the verge of being the district we are all going to be able to point and say, ‘This is what we want districts to look like,’” Walters told her during the meeting, also pledging continued support and resources from the state.

“You’re a great head coach. You’ve assembled a great team around you. Game plan has been excellent. Now we are entering into the fourth quarter. We have to step it up.”

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