Maybe Oklahoma has to go back to basics to fix our schools Mark McBride

From my research, Oklahoma has never ranked 17th in the national NAEP Scores — NAEP being what’s known as The Nation’s Report Card. I most recently researched this, and where it comes from is Education Week’s Quality Counts report, where in 2011, Oklahoma ranked 17th. The ranking was based on education policy, standards and teacher development — not actual student outcomes. We were actually below average nationally that year.

Our best showing in recent years came in 2015, when Oklahoma ranked roughly in the middle of the pack nationally on various scoring within NAEP. But by 2019, we had dropped into the bottom 10. Today, we rank at the bottom in both reading and math.

Oklahoma's decline began before COVID-19

Then came COVID-19, which dealt a blow to learning everywhere, but Oklahoma’s