OSDE’s proposed replacement for chronic absenteeism is “teacher effectiveness.” It would be made of three components: the percentage of students in core academic classes taught by certified teachers, the percentage of students taught by teachers with at least three years of experience, and a composite score based on teacher attendance, professional learning completion and teacher evaluations.
In a Monday news release, Sen. Mark Mann (D-Oklahoma City) and Rep. Ellen Pogemiller (D-Oklahoma City) called on Oklahomans to submit a public comment to the department, speaking out against the policy they said punishes schools for things they can’t control.
“It’s not right to punish schools who are forced to use alternative or emergency certified teachers because there aren’t enough credentialed or highly qualified educators,” Mann said in the release. “We’re still in a teacher shortage crisis in Oklahoma, and Superintendent Ryan Walters has done nothing to address it — in fact he’s a large part of the problem.”
Mann also said using evaluations in the report card could create an incentive for administrators to inflate evaluation scores.
The deadline to submit public comments on OSDE’s website is Friday.
In an interview with StateImpact, Mann said he is hopeful State Board of Education members will push back on the proposed metric and demand to see the public comments before making a decision. The board’s four newest members have shown a willingness to intervene in Walters’ initiatives.
“I think that board has got [Walters’] number and figured it out. From what I can see so far, I don’t think they’re going to be afraid to say no,” Mann said. “... I suspect had we not brought this to light, it probably would have ended up on a consent agenda before the board next month with hope that nobody had any discussion about it.”
The proposed changes are in the form of an amendment to the state’s Consolidated State Plan, as required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2014. All states are required to submit a plan to the U.S. Secretary of Education for approval.
Oklahoma’s ESSA-compliant accountability system includes the Oklahoma A-F Report Card, which is made up of several metrics like graduation rates and academic performance. ESSA requires states to have at least one measure of student achievement or school quality outside of academic tests, which the chronic absenteeism metric satisfied.
Chronic absenteeism will still remain on the report card, but only in the capacity that schools can earn “bonus points” for providing in-person instruction to students for more than the required number of school days and for improving chronic absenteeism rates.
According to Senate Bill 711, of which Mann was a co-author, the board was required to submit the proposed amendment to the U.S. Department of Education no later than Aug. 1.
Mann said because of the late timing, the situation is now a catch-22: state law required chronic absenteeism to be removed and a new plan submitted by last week, but that plan has not passed through public comment or a board vote. But regardless, ESSA requires something in its place.
And, Mann said, school is starting for most Oklahoma districts in the next few weeks.
“We’re going to be a full month behind. … If it were to be approved at the board meeting later this month, almost every school in the state has already started the school year,” Mann said. “They have already planned on how they’re going to address all these key measures. And not knowing is a big deal.”
UPDATE:
OSDE confirmed Thursday it would no longer propose "teacher effectiveness" for the A-F Report Card. StateImpact is working to learn whether the department is federally required to substitute a different metric for chronic absenteeism.
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