The release of Oklahoma's A–F school report cards this week overshadowed another set of results: state test scores.
Grades three, four, five, six and eight showed slight gains in math proficiency, while grade seven lost some ground. For English language arts, only third and seventh grades had improved proficiency, with the rest flat or dropping off as many as five percentage points.
In addition, fewer high school juniors are prepared for college-level English language arts, but more are ready for college-level math.
The State Department of Education is looking into why some grades have lost ground in math and reading proficiency.
Oklahoma’s now three years into a set of more rigorous academic standards, and State Board of Education members wonder when those will translate to significant improvements. State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said scores will jump faster if districts commit to teaching the new standards.
"So, if a district says, 'You know what? We understand there’s standards over here, but we’re teaching what we want,' they’re never going to perform the way they could if they would actually teach the standards," Hofmeister said.
Board of Education member Carlisha Bradley said she’s hearing from superintendents teaching the new standards is sometimes easier said than done.
"A huge topic of conversation is, 'I can’t teach standards that I don’t have resources that supplement the standards I’m supposed to teach to train my teachers,'" Bradley said.
Education officials said the bright spot of the test scores has to do with Oklahoma's Reading Sufficiency Act. A subset of test questions showing whether 7- and 8-year-olds are reading at grade level shows nearly eight in 10 are.
"The last two years, we’ve increased the resources we’ve allocated and the number of students we’ve impacted with those additional resources, and that’s confirmation that it’s working," said State Board of Education member Bill Flanagan.
Third grade also had the highest proportion of students scoring proficient or higher on English language arts tests, with 39% showing they’ve mastered state standards and are on track for university-level work in 10 years.
