Oklahoma City top news of the week for August 8, 2025
Here are the top headlines we’ve covered from around Oklahoma City for the week of Aug. 8, 2025
State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters says the Oklahoma State Department of Education will allow school districts to use alternative benchmark assessments approved by the agency in place of current so-called “high-stakes” testing in math and English language arts in grades 3-8.
The announcement came as the more than 500 districts across the state are gearing up for the start of the 2025-26 school year. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as some district superintendents and the state’s education secretary, raised immediate questions about the potential consequences of dropping the state tests.
Walters cited an unscientific survey he conducted, which he said indicated 81% of almost 23,000 respondents said state testing isn’t necessary for evaluating student learning.
“By moving away from outdated state tests and empowering local districts, we’re reducing the burden on students, parents, and teachers while ensuring high-quality education that is no longer driven by bureaucrats or outside groups,” Walters said.
Walters, however, does not have the authority to unilaterally make such a decision. According to state law, “the State Board of Education shall adopt a statewide system of student assessments” that comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Walters is the chair of the board, which has seven members, six of whom are appointed by the governor. Walters and the four newest board members, appointed earlier this year, have clashed on multiple issues.
The Oklahoma Legislature also would likely weigh in on any such action. One of the most influential legislators on education issues, Rep. Dell Kerbs, who’s the chair of the House Education Oversight Committee, threw proverbial cold water on Walters’ idea.
“End-of-year state assessments are mandated by both state and federal law,” said Kerbs, R-Shawnee. “The Legislature has consistently worked to make student testing more efficient and meaningful for students, parents and teachers. We look forward to continued collaboration with Superintendent Walters and school districts so that any proposed changes to student testing align with state law and provides clear, actionable information on student college and career readiness.”
Also according to state law, another agency, the Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability, “shall determine the cut scores for the performance levels on all statewide assessments.” In May, the commission reset the cut scores – which measure student proficiency levels – to more closely align with national standards, after approving standards in 2024 that proved problematic, as they lowered the bar for students to achieve a proficient score. The 2024 standards had been recommended by Walters’ agency.
“The (state Board of Education) and the Legislature needs to be involved in this,” said former state Rep. Mark McBride, a Republican from Moore who once chaired the Oklahoma House Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee. “He can’t just wave his wand and make this happen. This would be the makings of something that we could possibly agree on, but it needs more thought put into it than what he’s put.
“We have way too much testing and we need to cut back on some of that. but he needs to bring some people in who know more about the testing than he does.”
District superintendents skeptical about latest Ryan Walters mandate
Like McBride, Mid-Del Schools Superintendent Rick Cobb said he’s never been a fan of state testing and also questioned whether Walters can singlehandedly upend them.
“There are a lot of questions about, ‘How is this even possible?’” Cobb said. “My phone has been blowing up ever since those news alerts started going out.”
Mid-Del schools will still have state testing in the spring unless there’s clear guidance about ending it, Cobb said. For now, he said he’s going to have to determine what to communicate to principals and teachers.
“We have all this momentum getting people excited about getting their classrooms ready and all of that,” Cobb said. “I don’t want my people to quit focusing there and start talking about this because it’s a distraction in my opinion.”
Andy Evans, the interim superintendent of Kingfisher Public Schools, said doing away with standardized testing would threaten access to two major pots of funding for Oklahoma common education: from the federal government, which requires standardized testing, as well as from the so-called “1017 Fund” at the state level.
According to the nonpartisan Oklahoma Policy Institute, the 1017 Fund, also known as the Education Reform Revolving Fund, is a dedicated revenue fund that the Oklahoma Legislature appropriates to the Oklahoma State Department of Education. It was created by an education reform law passed in 1990 known as House Bill 1017. It consists of revenues generated from income, tobacco and sales taxes, as well as tribal gaming exclusivity fees and horse track gaming.
Evans said one of that law’s stipulations for access to the fund is for the state education agency to conduct standardized tests. About $1.068 billion — which is about 27.7% of total state appropriations for the state Department of Education — was appropriated from the 1017 Fund in fiscal year 2025.
Earlier in August, Walters’ agency said it would ask the federal government for a five-year waiver from the testing requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act, commonly known as ESSA. However, that waiver has not yet been granted, as such requests require a 30-day public comment period, which won’t end until Sept. 8.
The waiver request from the state agency asks for the federal agency to grant it starting with the 2025-26 school year. It also asks for “flexibility to expand its use of alternative assessments including the Classical Learning Test (CLT), the SAT, and innovative benchmark assessments. These would be used in lieu of assessments constrained by a peer review system that has grown restrictive, outdated and effectively monopolistic.”
State Education Secretary Nellie Tayloe Sanders, the chair of the Commission for Educational Quality and accountability, noted the unpopularity of the standardized tests but said more thought is needed before simply throwing them out.
“Oklahoma students deserve to have a high quality education,” Sanders said. “Standardized tests have long been criticized in the education system. While we can all agree that the status quo isn’t working, tossing out tests without thinking through next steps can be short sighted. I look forward to working with the Oklahoma State Department of Education to find a path forward to ensure our kids have the skills they need for their futures.”
Walters has tried before to push the boundaries of his authority
It’s not the first time Walters has tried to implement major education policy changes in Oklahoma without seeking approval from those with authority to make those changes, such as the state Board of Education or the Legislature. Most recently, he tried to mandate that every Oklahoma district pay for meals for every student, after boards for those districts already had approved budgets for the 2025-26 school year and without providing the millions of dollars in extra funding such a mandate would require.
At the time, state Rep. Dick Lowe, R-Amber, the chair of the House Common Education Committee, said Walters did not “have the Constitutional or legal authority to direct how individual school districts allocate their budgets. … As such, there is no legal basis for the State Department of Education to retaliate through special sanctions over budget decisions that are entirely within districts’ rights.”
Reacting to Walters’ latest move to end state testing, Rep. Melissa Provenzano acknowledged that teachers and parents have been calling for a similar move for years.
“And yet — there is the lawful way, and then there is this approach,” Provenzano, D-Tulsa, said in a post on social media. A former school administrator, Provenzano noted Walters did not present his plan to the State Board of Education for approval.
Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt said “Oklahomans are tired” of Walters.
“As students are going back to school, what parents want to know is pretty simple: Does my child have a quality teacher in their classroom, and do they have the support they need to educate my child and set them up for success?” said Kirt, D-Oklahoma City. “The only reason Ryan Walters is even talking about high-stakes testing is to distract folks from the countless scandals that have happened under his watch.”
(This story was updated to add new information.)