Ryan Walters Shares New Accreditation Plans Ahead Of OSDE Meeting

The Oklahoma State Department of Education meets this morning to discuss a change in accreditation, which would affect all public schools in the state.

Thursday, November 30th 2023, 6:53 am

By: News 9

The State Board of Education will meet to talk about a topic that will affect all public schools: a change to how schools are accredited. The meeting is at 9:30 Thursday morning.

News 9 spoke with Superintendent Ryan Walters ahead of the meeting.

Watch the State Board of Education meeting live.

"Parents are frustrated, our communities are frustrated, so what we've got to do is take a different approach. The status quo has not worked," Walters said.

School accreditation has been a topic of discussion for the last few years. First, when state education officials put Western Heights under state control due to issues with its accreditation.

Those issues have since been resolved and the district is back under local control.

This year, State Superintendent Ryan Walters led a push to downgrade Tulsa Public Schools' accreditation due to issues with test scores and reported financial issues that led to criminal charges.

Now Walters said he's looking to revamp the accreditation process to hold all public schools accountable for kids struggling academically.

"Every school that's found deficient in academics will get much more involvement from the state department of education. That's resources, that's personnel, that's training programs," Walters said.

Walters said, for example, a school that performs less than 50 percent basic in math will be deficient and if the state's plan goes into effect, those schools would see stricter scrutiny from education officials and resources to boost scores.

"You set measurements, and you talk through with districts on how to meet those measurements, and if they fall short, you hold them accountable, and you also give them ways to be successful," Walters said.

The accreditation discussion is part of a 60-day process where anyone can comment on the proposal.

Those comments are generally submitted on the state's website, on which the state board of education will vote, followed by votes of the Oklahoma House and Oklahoma Senate.