JC Watts: We Can’t Settle When It Comes To Education
J.C. Watts: Oklahoma can’t afford to settle when it comes to education
BY J.C. WATTS
In a few weeks, Oklahoma students will return to the classroom amid a lot of uncertainty given recent actions by the Legislature and Gov. Mary Fallin to repeal education standards.
Five months ago, I couldn’t have told you the difference in Common Core and uncommon core, but I could have convinced you that Oklahoma school kids were being left behind. So regardless of what we think of Common Core, school districts and teachers have been relegated for the next two years back to the old standards that have failed.
Under these status quo standards, referred to as PASS, only 25 percent of Oklahoma eighth-graders demonstrated proficiency in math and only 29 percent of eighth-graders demonstrated proficiency in reading. We can’t continue down this path.
Now Oklahoma faces the task of developing new academic standards that ensure our children graduate from high school ready to compete in the state’s ever-evolving economy. The deadline to develop these new standards is August 2016.