Newly elected State Superintendent Ryan Walters stumped legislators earlier this week when he said he planned to change the already-approved education budget proposal.
Walters’ first state school board meeting as superintendent Thursday began with familiar refrains.
"We will ensure that indoctrination and CRT are eliminated in our state. We will make sure all of our vendors and the schools are focused on education, and not diversity, equity and inclusion," said Walters.
Former Superintendent Joy Hofmeister’s budget request included a $5,000 across-the-board teacher raise. But Walters’ request cuts that allocation in half, and instead of across-the-board raises, he wants extra pay to be based on individual merit, like having high evaluation scores or being Nationally Board Certified.
"We have to start shifting in education from a blanket socialist concept that everybody gets the same no matter what, and say, you know what, we want student results, that’s what we want. We’re going to incentivize that with the way that we pay things in education," Walters said.
Walters may not get everything on his wish list though - final budget approval is up to the legislature.
After successfully pushing back the execution dates of several death row inmates earlier this week, Attorney General Gentner Drummond is also ordering a new review of one inmate’s case.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond has ordered an independent council to conduct a review of death row inmate Richard Glossip’s murder conviction and death sentence.
Former prosecutor Rex Duncan will review the investigation, trial, sentencing, and appeals processes that have happened since Glossip was sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of motel owner Barry Van Treese.
An investigative report by law firm Reed Smith found letters suggesting Justin Sneed, the man who carried out the murder of Van Trese, wanted to recant his statement that Glossip had paid him to commit the crime. Glossip is currently scheduled to be executed on May 18.
Across the nation, teachers and schools have been grappling with the capabilities of cutting-edge AI. In some places, the technology has even been banned outright. The University of Oklahoma doesn’t seem too concerned.
For the uninitiated, ChatGPT is a text-generating artificial intelligence which has gotten a lot of attention recently. According to Forbes, public school districts in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City, Virginia, and more have banned ChatGPT from school wifi but according to the OU Daily, The University of Oklahoma has no plan to block the use of the service on campus.
The campus spokesperson claims existing plagiarism detection software used in the college already goes a long way to mitigate the use of ChatGPT and that they will be continually updated overtime to combat this new type of plagiarism.
On the upside, OU Classics Assistant Professor James Zainaldin points out, this tool may give students a whole new way to interact with their studies; by allowing students to hold conversations with historical figures. I'm Jack Franklin
When four teams play on Sunday for the NFL Conference Championships, they’ll all be stepping onto football fields with Oklahoma roots.
The NFL’s final two playoff games will take place at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, both of which use turfgrass varieties developed at Oklahoma State University.
OSU’s Turfgrass Science Division has patented 10 varieties over the past three decades. The Chiefs will face the Bengals on a grass called NorthBridge, which OSU released in 2011. The Eagles are up against the 49ers on Tahoma 31 turfgrass, a newer variety that OSU researchers bred to be resilient to cold temperatures and drought.
Half of the NFL uses natural turfgrass in their stadiums rather than artificial turf. But the NFL Players Association says it should be more, since foot, ankle and knee injuries are more common on the fake stuff.
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