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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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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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Oklahoma Republican Legislators Enacted President Obama’s Education Agenda During 2010 Creating Many Of The Problems We’re Seeing In Public Education TODAY

As a pre-Halloween trick, this article was released in the Tulsa World – Teacher shortage milestone: New record set for nonaccredited teachers given emergency certification in Oklahoma.

I urge you to read the article – it’s short – but even if you only have time to scan it, read the section that says;

A decade ago, applications for emergency certifications used to be a rarity, with just 32 emergency teaching certificates approved in 2011-12.  But as Oklahoma plunged into a statewide teacher shortage, school districts became increasingly reliant on underqualified new hires who had not yet completed the state’s requirements for either traditional or alternative certification. The numbers have increased annually since 2012, save for a one-year dip last year to 2,801.

Okay. This clearly says that until the 2011/2012 school year, there were only about 35 emergency certifications provided by the OSDE. So what happened in 2010 in Oklahoma?

Well, if you don’t know, I can certainly tell you because I wrote about it and studied it furtively and constantly for five years.

In 2010, House and Senate Republicans along with Governor Mary Fallin ushered into Oklahoma law, The FOUR PILLARS OF THE OBAMA EDUCATION AGENDA – Common Core, State Longitudinal Database, Teacher Accountability Measures and Turning Around Underperforming Schools – through an ENORMOUS omnibus bill – SB2033 – made possible by former Democrat Governor Brad Henry’s acceptance of State Stabilization Funds (SSF).

Why in the world would Oklahoma Republicans sign on to law created by a Democratic President with Marxist tendencies?

Because it would result in an ability to receive federal funds to implement something called “Race To The Top“, President Obama’s education initiative. And later, because Congress refused to re-authorize the billion page law called the ESSA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) which President George Bush renamed the “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB), President Obama came up with a scheme to provide states with even more money – I mean “flexibility” – not to have to have students meet the NCLB requirement of 100% proficiency in math and reading by 2014. And guess what? Then State Superintendent Janet Barresi applied for and got those funds as well.

Unfortunately, those ALSO required the state to develop all four pillars of Obama’s education reforms.

In 2011, former colleague Lynn Habluetzel and I sat down for 2 days to come up with a map that would show as many of the players in the Obama money scheme that our Republican elected officials had bought into. Here’s what we came up with.

It went viral. You can actually internet search this thing because people were so disgusted by it. Why? Because every group on this ‘map’ exerts some kind of control over YOUR DISTRICT SCHOOL in some way. That’s what federal funds do. They tie states to FEDERAL programs whether they’re good for the state or not.

Now, let’s mosey on up to 2014 and add on to all you see above with the “Dear Colleague Letter” penned by Obama which basically told schools that they could be brought up on Civil Rights charges for disciplining black students.

The consequences of the aforementioned 4 pillars is HUGE, but the latter is the worst of all. Ask ANY teacher why they’re quitting and DISCIPLINE ISSUES are in the top two.
Schools do what they’re told by the federal government so they can get federal government money (this is why they DON’T respond to parents – parents don’t have the money carrot there to make it worth it for them in their world view of ‘kids deserve schools with more money’ whatever that means).

Look at mask mandates if you simply can’t believe me. Ask teachers the next reason they’re leaving and they’ll tell you PAPERWORK.

There’s all this data to collect on each student, there’s SEL which is used to conduct Climate Surveys and grading teachers all for the School Grade card that allows schools to get their ESSA money. (More info on school grade cards)

JUST STOP IT.

If you really want to know what’s causing the teacher shortage, it’s the results of the OBAMA-DIRECTED EDUCATIONAL GARBAGE INFLICTED UPON THIS STATE BY REPUBLICAN ELECTED OFFICIALS. Look no further. Schools got what they wanted – their Obama grants and ESSA money – so stop your griping already. You’re just reaping what you’ve sown!

Here’s the thing: I’m convinced that school officials are one of two things – ignorant of everything I’ve just outlined and documented (like the Board member at the teacher termination hearing last night who didn’t know what her job was) – or they know exactly what goes on and know it’s in their best interest to keep parents as far away from making them accountable for it as possible.

Parents, let’s quit letting the latter category think we’re simpletons who can only do Common Core math (2+2=5). TAKE BACK YOUR SCHOOL BOARDS. It’s the only way to make the madness stop and for schools to once again be accountable to student learning and the will and wishes of parents.

Jenni White – Education Director

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