OCPA column: Parent unrest not isolated to Virginia

Parent unrest not isolated to Virginia By Jonathan Small Recently released district-level data shows Oklahoma parents have reason to feel as aggrieved as counterparts making their voices heard at school-board meetings across the country. Things are so bad that simply holding steady on poor performance is almost an accomplishment. Urban districts that adopted the most extreme COVID policies and remained closed to in-person instruction for the better part of a year generated the worst outcomes and biggest learning losses on state tests. In Oklahoma City, 90 percent of students were below expectations in all subjects on this year’s state tests and 67 percent were effectively more than one year behind. In Tulsa Public Schools, 89 percent of students tested below grade level in all subjects, and 64 percent were more than a year behind. What are those schools doing to make up that learning loss? Not much. In fact, Oklahoma City officials are proactively making things worse. At a recent school board meeting, Oklahoma City fired six teachers for failure to comply with a mask mandate that was illegal when it was implemented. An attorney for five of the teachers said all five had exemplary records. For those who wonder, there’s little evidence the mask mandate reduced COVID transmission. Reported case numbers for Oklahoma City schools followed the general statewide trend (of mostly unmasked citizens) by generating a steady rise in September followed by a drop off in October. Read more » by Jamison Faught - November 15, 2021 at 03:04PM

OCPA column: Parent unrest not isolated to Virginia Click the title to read the entire article at Muskogee Politico