Senate Approves Education Accountability Legislation

Legislation that will toughen the math curriculum in Oklahoma’s secondary schools and increase graduation requirements for high seniors passed out of the Oklahoma State Senate Tuesday on a unanimous 46-0 vote.

Senate Bill 982, authored by Senate Appropriations Chairman Mike Morgan, contains Governor Brad Henry’s Achieving Classroom Excellence initiative and focuses on improving math instruction at the secondary level.

“Too many students from Oklahoma have to spend valuable time and money taking remedial math courses once they get to college. We have to recognize this problem and increase our focus on math instruction in our public schools,” said Morgan, D-Stillwater.

Chief among the bill’s provisions is including a third year of math as a high school graduation requirement from a public high school in Oklahoma.

“We also must recognize that we have to do more than just make our high school students occupy a desk in a math class for an additional year. We have to address the issue earlier in the academic careers of our students and we have to make sure our math teachers – especially at the middle school level – have all the tools they need be as effective as possible,” Morgan said.

The legislation includes an increased emphasis on math and reading in Oklahoma’s middle schools. It offers a $1,000 bonus for middle school teachers who successfully complete a professional development program to improve their math instruction.

The Stillwater senator said that every effort is being made to ensure that strengthening the math requirements won’t interfere with opportunities for Oklahoma high school students to take part in CareerTech programs.

Morgan said other provisions of the bill will measure its overall effectiveness and hold educators and students more accountable.

It will require eighth-grade students to pass reading and math mastery exams or be subject to summer school or after school tutoring and remediation programs.

High school seniors will also be required to pass end of instruction exams in four of six subjects before receiving a diploma. The college preparatory curriculum now required of students before they can receive an Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program scholarship would become the default minimum curriculum required for high school graduation for all students.

The ACE initiative would also pay for high school students to get a jump on their college careers by paying for college courses they take concurrently while still in high school.

Morgan said SB 982 also creates the ACE Task Force, which will charged with developing recommendations for additional end of course instruction tests, benchmarks and cut scores; student exemptions from mastery exams; an action plan for remediation; and to hold public hearings for educators, parents and students.

The19-member task forces will be made up of educators and administrators from small, mid-size and large school districts; representatives from all education associations, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Director of CareerTech; the Chancellor for Higher Education; and members of the Legislature.

Senate Bill 982 now goes to the Oklahoma House of Representatives for consideration.