Wednesday, November 6, 2013
OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma’s secretary of education and workforce, Dr. Robert Sommers, today issued the following statement regarding the release of the State Department of Education’s A-F grades for Oklahoma Public Schools. In addition to serving on Governor Mary Fallin’s cabinet, Sommers also serves as the director of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. Previously, he served as the superintendent of Butler Technology and Career Development Schools in Ohio.
“As a superintendent, I championed the use of data to reform my school district. In 2001, the data showed my district was doing poorly. We were ranked 42nd out of 49 Ohio tech centers.
“In response to that ranking, which revealed that our students were underperforming, our staff and student body committed ourselves to improvement. After a lot of hard work, we were eventually ranked first in student performance for three years in a row.
“We didn't see the data as a negative. We saw it as an opportunity to measure success. Most importantly, we saw it as a motivator for change and improvement.
“The A-F grading system in Oklahoma offers the same opportunity today. Reporting school performance in a transparent and understandable way is a valuable tool for educational improvement. Educators who embrace this information and engage their students, parents, and faculty in maintaining high performance or improving low performance are best serving Oklahoma’s children.”