A-F school grading system changes heard at state ed board meeting
BY KIM ARCHER World Staff Writer
Thursday, February 28, 2013
2/28/13 at 2:53 PM
OKLAHOMA CITY - The state education board heard proposed changes to the A-F school grading system Thursday, but only after some heated discussion about whether the public must restrict their comments to the changes rather the entire system.
"You have boxed the board in. You didn't come to us and say these are the rule changes we want to have. You didn't do any of that," said board member Lee Baxter.
Board legal counsel Kim Richey told Baxter that the reasons given for the proposed changes are written broadly enough that it would allow for comments any portion of the A-F school grading system.
Since its approval late last year, the A-F school grading system has been fraught with controversy. More than 300 superintendents statewide told the state Education Department that the formula used to determine each school's grade was flawed and that they had no input into the system's creation.
State Superintendent Janet Barresi said the proposed changes to the A-F grading system rules won't be the last. This will be "a continuous and ongoing process as it is with all of our reforms."
At one point, board member Joy Hofmeister asked why the department hadn't answered a letter sent by more than 25 superintendents asking the agency to respond to a report by University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University researchers that suggested the A-F system is faulty and the state should scrap it and start over.
"Instead of going through the process of exchanging letters, we would prefer to meet with folks face-to-face and that is what we are in the process of doing," said Barresi Chief of Staff Joel Robison.
Read more in Friday's Tulsa World.
Associated Images:
Oklahoma State Superintendent Janet Barresi
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