The Oklahoma State Board of Education met for its first special meeting under the newly appointed State Superintendent on Thursday. Board members discussed the accreditation process for schools not meeting the standards before entering a three-hour executive session to discuss teacher certifications and suspensions.
The board worked through its dense agenda quickly but spent some time on accreditation warnings for 16 schools that haven't met the state's standards.
Board members had questions about why accreditation has come into question for some schools, whether traditional public schools and charter schools follow the same guidelines for accreditation, and how education outcomes play a role in the process.
The schools in question are:
- Bokoshe Public Schools
- Chelsea Public Schools
- Cherokee Immersion Public Charter Schools
- Fletcher Public Schools
- Grandview Public Schools
- Gypsy Public Schools
- Insight Public Charter Virtual School
- KIPP Tulsa Public Charter School
- LeMonde International Public Charter Schools
- McAlester Public Schools
- Optima Public Schools
- Peavine Public Schools
- Straight Public Schools
- Vinita Public Schools
- Wagoner Public Schools
- Western Heights Public Schools
While the listed reasons to place schools on an accreditation probationary period ranged from having negative account balances, to teachers paid less than the legal minimum, a lack of mobile panic alert systems, and failure to meet testing procedures — all legitimate reasons on paper — board member Becky Carson verbalized the source of the stated concerns.
"I think I can probably speak with several board members here that we do — or I do — have concerns about the validity of this process," Carson said. "Because of the former leadership, we were aware of some situations in which accreditation was used as a tool to harm."
By "former leadership," she means the recently resigned former State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who often threatened schools and districts with revoking their accreditation if they didn't abide by his culture war antics.
The board voted to table the prospect of formally warning 15 school districts, pending further review of their specific issues, and accrediting Oklahoma City's Western Heights Public Schools, which made improvements since it failed state evaluations.
Following a three-hour executive session, the board returned and suspended four teaching certificates of six that were pending action, and advanced them all to the next step: a formal legal hearing before an administrative law judge.
That move pushes along a backlog of teachers who have been waiting months for the state board to decide whether their licenses will be suspended and considered for possible revocation by an Administrative Law Judge.
