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SB224 And SB141 Are Unnecessary; The WAVE (SLDS) Captures Student Data On Education And The Workforce – AND WAY MORE – Already

Common Core flowchart

For those of you who have followed ROPE since the days (2008-2014) when we were called Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE), you’ll recognize the flowchart, that Lynn Habluetzel (former ROPE Board member) and I created together to show how Obama’s Race To The Top grant program was fueling ways in which the government would track YOUR CHILDREN all under the guise of ‘helping’ them. What did Reagan say, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help”?

This session, our ‘helpful’ legislature – particularly Representative Chad Caldwell and Senator Ally Seifried – have decided to add to the State Longitudinal Database System (SLDS) so loved by former REPUBLICAN State Superintendent Janet Baressi. Here is the text of the bill. In addition, Seifried and Dick Lowe (SB141) are directing the OSDE to issue RFP’s for a “statewide student information system”. I guess, we’re the only ones that remember the information below apparently.

I was going to publish a list of reasons why this bill shouldn’t even be considered, but I’ll just say this – WE ALREADY HAVE A STATE LONGITUDINAL DATABASE (aka Statewide Student Information System) and according to everything we learned years ago, it was set up to do all the same stuff outlined in the bill by the person responsible for setting the whole scheme up by the Obama administration in the first place, John Kraman – now the Chief Information Officer for the Mississippi State Department of Education.

Here’s what we know.

We know that the state got a Race To The Top grant for $4,997,082 to construct the SLDS in 2012.

We know that Oklahoma created a P20 Council via law to oversee the project which was supposed to have sunset (gone away) in 2015.

We know that The Wave is “OSDE’s primary system for collecting data from schools to perform necessary duties and functions” (Oklahoma’s SLDS). Incidentally, the link that is supposed to tell parents exactly what data is collected via The Wave is not working, which violates section C.1 of the law we helped implement in 2013 (2013 Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act, 70 O.S. § 3-168) until we realized it didn’t say what we expected it to say – story on that here.

We know that the OSDE has a data governance board.

We know that the OSDE has a Data Privacy Program Plan.

Here is a list of The Wave Code Tables to give you an idea of the kind of data our SLDS is storing.

We know that the OSDE is continually updating the Schools Interoperative Framework (SIF) and has new updates ready this year (2025).

And finally, we know that The Wave allows data researchers/teachers/etc., to pull information on students regarding their post-secondary and (‘workforce’) ‘opportunities’.

In closing:

STOP COLLECTING DATA ON KIDS! THERE IS NO NEED FOR THIS UNLESS THE IDEA IS FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO EDUCATE STUDENTS FOR JOBS LIKE THE EU DOES.

And if there’s still any concern that Oklahoma needs more excuses to collect data on kids, below is the presentation I made to the House Admin rules, Government Oversight and Repealer Committee during October of 2013. It’s a MUST WATCH because it contains the flowcharts I prepared that show how the state – and the feds – collect student data.

Here is the paper that contains all the LIVE links to all the research Lynn, Julia Seay (former ROPE Board member) and I did on the SLDS during the time Oklahoma was implementing that monster.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE share this information with every parent and grandparent you can and IMMEDIATELY contact your Representative and Senator and tell them that they MUST vote NO for SB224 and SB141 and any other data collection bill in the state legislature.

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Trump’s Is A Win AGAINST Authoritarian Government, But Only “If can keep it”

What a decisive victory for Trump, for the United States and for those of us who detest authoritarian government – as in Marxism, Communism or any other -ism. I’m extremely happy. I was at the point of believing that either America had become what the -isms have tried to make it since President Obama, or that Americans had just given up and jumped ahead into the acceptance stage of grief. Fortunately, it’s not over ’till it’s over and it’s apparently not over for now.

However, let me play your mom for just a bit:

1. Let’s go over the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the election again. Americans DO NOT WANT COMMUNISM, MARXISM, or any other -ISM to replace INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. THAT IS YUGE. They may not have gone into the voting booth knowing exactly what was causing their pain, but they knew enough to know that it was somehow coming from the Democrats. They may not even have thought of ‘personal liberty’ as an issue, but they knew they were becoming less and less free and that they had felt less confined under the 45th President.

2. Americans absolutely got what happened with the last election and were vigilant to SEEK OUT AND STOP voter manipulation to the best of their ability. There were MILLIONS of eyes trained on this election all the way through, across nearly every county in every state. This, again, is YUGE. Unfortunately, we’ve still got election laws that need to be changed in Oklahoma – as well as other states – and we can’t neglect continuously lobbying our legislature for those. More than anything, our country must go back to the Constitutional ONE DAY of voting, period, with absentee ballots used ONLY for those voters overseas, incapacitated and the military. That HAS to happen before 2028 is even a glimmer in Vance’s Presidential campaign.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS

3. Oklahoma voters didn’t turn out ONE SINGLE DISTRICT JUDGE. This means to me that while Oklahomans showed up to vote for Trump, they were not educated enough about the importance of our judiciary to study up on the District Judges – and this election, there was plenty of info out there to share. It either didn’t get shared widely enough, or people didn’t care enough to become educated. District judges who rule on ideology and don’t follow the Constitution make decisions that make a difference in the lives of every day Oklahomans for the worst. Yes, Trump may be in the White House, but if you have to go to court and a District Judge doesn’t provide justice in your case according to the law, you’re not going to be happy.

Why do I use the word ignorant? Because our public schools DO NOT TEACH THE CONSTITUTION OR CIVICS by and large. The only reason I know any civics or Constitution is because I TAUGHT MYSELF. What 18-year-old is going to think, “I don’t know how our government works. I think I’ll teach myself!”? I’ve homeschooled numerous of these and mine have been a tough sell!

4. Same exact thing for the Supreme Court justices. Advertising for and against was probably half and half – maybe more toward retention I’ll have to crunch the numbers – and people (accidentally, I think) voted out the oldest judge of the three by a margin of a few thousand votes. Again, this indicates to me that people weren’t informed, they were simply listening to the ads that resonated with them the most, not really casting an educated vote.

5. Oklahoma County was almost exactly half and half for and against Trump and several of our county Republican candidates just barely squeaked by with wins, well-indicating that the largest center of population in Oklahoma ISN’T RED. Let that sink in a minute. Where is all policy for the state made? Where is the largest power center in the state?

SO WHAT’S THE TAKEAWAY HERE?

I was very active during the 2010 Red Wave. For those who don’t remember, President Obama, elected in 2008, began signing Executive Orders like – well there wasn’t much of a previous comparison – but certainly the way his Marxist handlers wanted him to. He pushed ObamaCare, he pushed Education Reform (including Common Core), he increased taxes and more. People were mainly incensed about the country having socialized medicine and went to the polls during the mid-term to vote like their hair was on fire, for anyone with an ‘R’ behind their name who promised to stop Obamacare.

What happened?

Nothing. Not. A. Thing. The Republicans – including our then-Congresswoman Mary Fallin – all got elected, went up to the nation’s capitol, bloviated a lot about how they’d stop Obamacare AND DIDN’T! They totally let the American people down on their promises which jaded American voters for at least a decade.

So please, you simply CAN’T believe that Republicans – including Trump – have the keys to proper Constitutional governance. It’s WE THE PEOPLE that hold those keys and when we neglect to use them by demanding accountability from our elected representation for our voices or we’ll vote them out, we get what we’ve had in the recent past.

So, instead of going to bed tonight and sleeping like a rock thinking that Trump’s gonna “fix” the last 50 years of disastrous government overgrowth, make THIS the election the one that causes you to become involved in your LOCAL government and schools. Make THIS the election that you educate yourself about Federal and Local GOVERNMENT and how they are SUPPOSED. Get out and meet your elected officials, keep up with organizations keeping up with legislation and lobby them on important bills on your own behalf. I guarantee you paid lobbyists, the Chamber of Commerce and large corporations/companies are doing that and those folks ARE NOT FOR THE PEOPLE, they’re for the BOTTOM LINE! Take back your rightful place as citizen lobbyist as soon as the legislature opens in February.

Pay attention to organizations out there like ROPE2.org who are telling it like it’s actually happening – even when the Republicans are doing it!

And remember – our public K-12 schools and our colleges and universities are producing little leftists as fast as they can. REALIZE: IF YOU DON’T CHANGE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS – or if you don’t remove your children from the system and homeschool with an emphasis on American National Government as provided by the Founders of this country – we will continue to be subjected to the nonsense and political upheaval we’ve had in America for the last 20 years.

You must get active in your school district; go to meetings, talk to your board members – or become one – and MAKE the schools account for their money, their programming and the time they have your kids. We won’t win another election if you don’t.

Yes, conservatives/Republicans have a presidential victory this November 2024, but as Ben Franklin said about our Republic after the Continental Congress passed the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787 – “if you can keep it”.

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Oklahoma Hiding Failing Test Scores Behind “Academic Achievement” Indicator, V1SUT Blogger Tells ROPE

Wednesday, May 14th, author “Mary” of the Substack V1SUT Vantage joined Michael Grande and me on our ROPE Report LIVE podcast – which broadcasts live on YouTube, Rumble, X, LinkdIn and Facebook every Wednesday and Friday at 9am – to talk about test scores vs academic achievement in Oklahoma public education. Just the week before, “Mary” had written an article, “OK School Performance & Deceptive Data: Parents & School Board Members Untrained to Assess Student Outcomes“, and we wanted the chance to discuss the data she had uncovered on the state’s School Report Card website.

Many years ago – 2016 to be exact – the OSDE under the leadership of then-Superintendent Janet Barresi, created the “A-F school report card”. ROPE was so against it, we wrote a blog about it (Oklahoma’s A-F Grading System Get’s An “F”), we wrote letters to the Governor and Superintendent and Jenni spoke before the State School Board warning them about the adoption of the grade card.

Our primary objections were 2: 1) the only REAL reason to create the grade card was to get President Obama’s end-around No Child Left Behind. As a Conservative organization, we objected to President Obama’s notion that he could ignore the Constitution and go around Congress to make his own law (waiver) simply because he believed Congress would not act to reauthorize the NCLB and 2) because the measurements used meant nothing and could disguise poor student test results.

Sadly/oddly/not shockingly, the school grade card today is essentially the same as the one from 2016. Here were the categories and their percentages: Student Achievement (33%), Individual Student Growth (17%), Growth of Bottom Quartile (17%) and Whole School Performance (33%). If you don’t believe me, check out the categories and POINTS (now) of the updated grade card. Not much difference there, just a whole lot of words to describe how it is that the State isn’t really being transparent with taxpayers and parents – I’d imagine so they can continue to get money from the feds as when the whole grade card thing started.

Here’s a short clip of Mary talking about what she found when she wondered why Achievement Scores are so high in schools housing primarily failing kids.

This is, of course, nonsense, but I pointed out in this other clip from the podcast, that since at least the mid-70’s, public education has been dumbing down education and then trying to cover their tracks. In the clip below, I show how the ‘recentered’ ACT scores made it look like students were doing very well, when in reality, they were doing MUCH WORSE on the test than 2 decades before.

If you’d like to see the whole video, you can find it on our YouTube or Rumble channels.

Just for grins and giggles, as I close out this piece, I thought I would include a section from a blog post in 2014 called, “Is Common Core MEANT to Blow Up the American Educational System?” It describes the way I see the PLANNED DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION by the Marxists who began stepping up the whole program under President Obama. You can also find more information in these two blogs from the same time frame (2012-2014), “Governor Fallin says, “Stop whining or you’ll get no more education funds.” and “ROPE Approves Democrat Disapproval“.

If you got anything out of the podcast or the research – PLEASE SHARE!

…there are those who believe “ObamaCare” was made to be so difficult to navigate in an effort to crash America’s current health care system.  The thought here is that if it becomes too hard to get health insurance, the public will clamor for SINGLE PAYER and just let the government handle the whole ball of wax – none of these silly exchanges – no, we’ll just move America over to the same side of the abacus as England and Canada and nationalize health care.  After all, we’re of socialist stock (eye roll).

I believe this is exactly what is happening to public education in America today when I look at the recent history of education ‘reform’.

  • First; you claim America education is failing.
  • Second; from the start, you act as the hand of benevolence by reaching out to states in their time of monetary need with ‘free’ money to keep education programs running (State Fiscal Stabilization Funds) where you hook states into a four pillared education reform system that includes national standards and state longitudinal databases.
  • Third; you play on America’s competitive spirit by offering states a grant where you can Race to the Top of education accountability and results, providing money through a program that continues to perpetuate the four pillars of education reform.
  • Fourth; you do NOT re-authorize the existing ESEA, but instead, go around Congress completely to create waivers for the worst parts of the law (such as the part where ALL children must be ‘proficient’ in English/LA and Math by 2014).  This, in essences creates your own ala cart law menu that keeps states hooked into the all-important four pillars, but also adds something called “accountability measures” for schools such as Third Grade Reading Retention programs, A-F grading scales and teacher accountability measures.
  • Fifth; you spend 6 years selling the plan to legislators while managing the whole scheme from behind the curtain of private, non-profit organizations within which taxpayers have no representation, propping up the system with huge infusions of cash from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and big business such as Exxon/Mobile and ‘happy to help’ players such as the US Chamber of Commerce.
  • Sixth; after you have states on their nationalized educational track through your promoted “pillars”, you scare states into keeping all their ‘accountability’ measures by threatening their Title 1 funding.  Though states/districts have no idea what will really happen to them if they don’t go along, states take the waivers and in exacting the instructions, districts self-destruct trying to figure out how to keep pressing the bar for their money like a lab rat for its pellet. *Teachers are afraid of having test scores held against them to the point of losing their jobs so they turn on administration.  *Administrators turn on parents who are told they must implement ‘reform’ measures and that they can’t opt out of state tests the A-F grading system utilizes scores to create school grades (page 9) without forcing complete ruination of their school; 
    • Schools are expected to test 100 percent of eligible students enrolled in that school during the testing window for every OSTP exam for which they are eligible, regardless of FAY status. 
    • Schools that do not test a sufficient percentage of eligible students will be penalized as follows (all percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number): 
    • The school’s Overall Letter Grade will be reduced by one whole letter grade if fewer than 95 percent of all eligible test records have valid scores. 
    • The school’s Overall Letter Grade will automatically be reduced to an “F” if fewer than 90 percent of all eligible test records have valid scores.
  • Seventh; you collect lots and lots of data by digitizing the Common Core State Standards states had to take to get an RTT or Waiver, then, you pay two testing “consortia” to create digital online test questions that will align so perfectly that everyone who looks at the scores will be able to tell which standard the students got right and wrong on their exam.  Since we so admire the European system of everything including schooling, can’t you believe this will imagine an end result that sounds like, “Sorry Johnny, you can’t be an engineer because you missed several math-related test questions indicating you are not engineer material.”  You also collect all kinds of miscellaneous data for federal programming such as the “Safe and Drug Free Schools” that includes very detailed information on discipline incidents (that, by the way, don’t just fall off the internet when your child needs a clean record for college and career applications!).  You then use this information against schools when they decide they are dumb enough to come crawling back for more money and or ‘waivers’ from existing unconstitutional federal education laws to further put the screws on them to get what you want.

(Sadly, a whole lot of the links in the original piece above from 2014, are no longer working)

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We’re Not So Jolly About Common Core Clark – Vote NO For Clark Jolley For State Treasurer

Clark Jolley at the Jeb Bush, Foundation for Education Excellence National Summit on Education Reform in Boston, MA with former Oklahoma State Board of Education member Amy Ford.  Clark Jolley was the lead author of the bill that adopted Obama-pushed Common Core State Standards throughout Oklahoma.

Sadly, Clark Jolley and ROPE have never been famous friends.

It all started in 2010, when he authored SB2033 (described by the title, “Teacher Incentive Pay) with Coffee, Jolley, Ford, Rice and Leftwich of the Senate.  This bill was created as a vehicle by which to apply for federal Race To The Top funds.  The bill is 34 pages and codified into law the Teacher Leader Effectiveness Evaluation System (a nightmare that Senator Adam Pugh tried to put an end to last year in a bill that was ‘committee’d to death’), the Race To The Top Commission, The Common Core State Standards Initiative, and failing school intervention program – three of the four aspects of the Obama Administration’s Race To The Top grant paid for with ARRA funds.

So, there’s that.  

In fact, I STILL can’t consider any Republican in the legislature who signed on to OBAMA’s education plan a real Republican – including Clark Jolley.

There is more – so much more – but to post all of that here would more than likely cause some kind of catatonic state from which the reader might not recover.  Let me simply say this; Blogspot has an excellent ‘search’ function.  I highly suggest – before casting a vote for Clark Jolley for anything – you search his name on the ROPE blog.  There are dozens of entries from which to choose where we’ve dissected and discussed legislation created by Senator Jolley and his cronies that we simply could not – AS SMALL GOVERNMENT REPUBLICANS – support.

The blog from which this picture was taken, “Oklahoma Legislative Education Leaders Take Advantage of Free Boston Trip Sponsored By Jeb Bush Foundation“, most probably says it all, however.  

In closing – and yes I am closing, as I feel my point should have been made solidly with the opening line – I do want to copy and paste an encounter we had with Senator Jolley (originally posted here) while we were lobbying against Common Core.

During 2011, there was a bill of Senator Jolley’s (SB264) with which we had issue.  It was advertised as a deregulation bill for schools, but there were an additional number of components – including a reference to the SLDS (State Longitudinal Database System) we didn’t like – and we didn’t want it passed.  Unfortunately, we found it late in its legislative cycle – after it was going back to the House a second time.  

Three of us were walking the halls talking to Representatives, sharing our concerns about the bill, when Clark Jolley strides by us at a ferocious clip, points a finger at us and says, “I want to see you in my office” and marches off.  We felt as though we were to follow, so we shrugged our shoulders at one another not knowing what was going on, and followed dutifully. 

Senator Jolley strode into his office directly behind his desk, told us to sit down, sat down himself and immediately launched into a very thorough berating, replete with pointed finger.  Now, mind you, one of us was actually a constituent of the Senator and NONE of us on the ROPE board are paid in any way – we are all mothers, housewives (and business owners) who take it upon ourselves to study the legislative process and become involved.  This fact, however, did not stop Senator Jolley from taking the time to tell us exactly how the cow ate the cabbage.  

We were NOT to go around behind his back, he explained vociferously.  If we had a problem with one of HIS bills, we needed to come to him first and not let him hear about it from someone else.  He wanted to make sure HIS bills get passed and he would work with us but he was not going to have us going around him taking matters into our own hands.

I have NEVER been such a combination of flabbergasted, annoyed and angry all at the same time.  I thought Senators were supposed to be public SERVANTS.  At one point I finally decided I’d had enough and told him that we weren’t paid lobbyists and didn’t know the system inside and out – heck one of us was even a constituent – we were simply doing what we felt was right.  It didn’t require a lecture.

I have never forgotten that incident…

True public “SERVANTS” don’t behave like Clark Jolley.

PS:  Todd Russ was always kind to us, listened, and more importantly voted YES to repeal Common Core from Oklahoma law.  I’ll be voting for Russ.

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