In a significant exposure of data “redefinition” today a V1SUT on Substack analysis begins with questions, “If someone told you your child’s school district had a 95.7% Academic Achievement rating, how would you feel? If you then learned that only 46.6% of students at the same district scored as proficient or better on state testing, would that change your view of the district’s performance?”
Understanding public data from your child’s school and district is second only to actively participating in your child’s education journey. Interpreting the available data year-to-year is complicated. In many cases, education officials have changed “public facing” reports to deflect and defuse public criticism.
V1SUT on Substack is well established as a traditional voice for parents and teachers working to improve educational opportunities, cultural standards and outcomes for children in Oklahoma.
The report continues, “State assessment scores, now renamed “Performance Level Snapshots”, are well below, minus the elaborate, colored charts and graphics the other indicators of student success or failure enjoy. Further information about state testing scores in English, math and science are buried as Assessment Performance in a different, less prominent area of the portal labeled “About Our District” just under information about teachers, financials and civil rights data collection.
“This deemphasis of student scores first occurred in 2019, as the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) introduced revamped public-facing data concerning the performance of public schools, districts and the state as a whole. At that time, existing measures showed academic results for the state’s school children to have taken a significant turn for the worse during then State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister’s tenure. The new measures appear to have been, in part, a reset that prevented comparisons to earlier data,” V1SUT continues. Click here for more of Misleading Measures.
This is a report every parent and anyone concerned with education in Oklahoma should read. V1SUT offers free and paid subscriptions delivered by email as they are published.
Education or the lack thereof can destroy or build a nation. In America, we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial reading in college. America can and must do better. Understanding the data is an excellent first step.
Note: Reporting of this significant story by V1SUT Vantage is presented under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, which permits use of limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports.