By Linda Murphy

Joy Hofmeister’s last month in office, December 2022, brought in a final installment of her plans for transforming Oklahoma’s Public Schools. She led the board as they voted to approve her plans to use Carnegie Learning curriculum. In June the same board voted unanimously to approve a $33.6 million contract for testing students, under a Non-Disclosure Agreement – which means the name of the company could not be revealed.

These new plans provide an extension to Hofmeister’s Federal Government approved 8-year plan 2018-2026, which is based on Common Core aligned methods and testing. The fact that we passed a state law in 2014 repealing Common Core did not slow down Hofmeister’s work to put it in place, as the State Chamber of Commerce and big donors’ desire. Now the new system is being designed to collect more on-line data from students so a “personalized learning” process can be implemented using AI -Artificial Intelligence technology.

Business Wire news report: Leading AI Education Technology Provider Carnegie Learning Announces Strategic Growth Investment From Madison Dearborn Partners. “Carnegie Learning leverages AI-driven and research-based adaptive learning capabilities to power software that complements its digital and printed instructional materials, which span math, English language arts and world languages. The company’s blended offering of digital and print solutions is attractive to school districts across the country as they continue to recognize the value that flexible online learning provides. Carnegie Learning also recently launched MATHia Flex, a brand-new supplemental software experience that gives educators the flexibility to customize a student’s learning path on an individual basis, coaching and adapting to each of their unique needs.”

“Carnegie Learning is the leader in artificial intelligence in education and formative assessment. Born from more than 20 years of learning science research at Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Learning delivers powerful math, ELA and world language blended learning solutions, the award-winning MATHia® platform for grades 6-12, project-based digital solutions for computer science, and best-in-class K-12 professional learning services.” It is important to note that data collection driven AI is a very HOT investment opportunity in education technology, rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar industry.”

Carnegie Learning’s stated goal is to “nurture the next global citizens.” From Business wire: Oklahoma State Board of Education Adopts Carnegie Learning World Languages Curriculum 12-7-22 “At Carnegie Learning, we know world language educators want students to discover the thrill of learning and speaking another language and of connecting with others making connections to other cultures’ literature, art, music, and ways of living to help nurture the next generation of global citizens.”

State testing for students now being developed, will no doubt align with the plans, processes and programs coming from Carnegie Learning. Student testing must align with the curriculum that will be used in the “high stakes” system set up now for “accountability.” The $33.6 million contract for student testing, which was passed without knowing the vendor, prevents me and everyone else from learning more about it.

The statement was made during the State School Board Meeting that the contract is under a “non-disclosure” agreement due to a regulation from the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES). This is NOT in state law...... but rather a regulation created by OMES, which is under the Governor and then the unknown vendor contract was approved by the State School Board, which is also under the Governor.

Oklahoma is on a track in K-12 education that is following the long-stated goals of the Carnegie Foundation’s National Center for Education and the Economy, whose Director until recently was Marc Tucker. Tucker wrote to Hillary Clinton in 1992 about his excitement following Bill Clinton’s election to the presidency. He outlined in several pages what he called their “cradle to the grave” plans they developed together along with David Rockefeller and others he named who wanted students tested, sorted and tracked. K-12 education is seen by the social engineers as part of the economic system due to the workforce need in business. The top-down control of education and the economy is planned and is developing side-by-side with plans for rural and urban development.

President Obama sent stimulus money to states with the stipulation that a State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) must be created for the collection and sharing of education data. Oklahoma’s SLDS was moved to OMES by John Kraman who came from ACHIEVE, a non-profit in Washington DC, where he was on a committee that wrote the Common Core State Standards. Kraman was hired by Superintendent Janet Barresi who implemented Common Core and served on Jeb Bush’s “Chiefs for Change” Board. Tulsa Superintendent Deborah Gist also served on Jeb Bush’s Board.

Behind the scenes and in the details, we can clearly see that Oklahoma’s K-12 Education has had over-lords working to direct what happens in the classroom. The “Workforce Development” goals of the State Chamber of Commerce, big money, big tech and big political agendas take precedence and drive the system far more than the teachers’ union ever has. We have years of failure in student performance in several districts, especially the large schools. Until we get off of this track we are on now we are going to continue to see learning opportunity lost for many students. Transparency and open disclosure of what is being done with standards, curriculum, testing, technology, data collection and sharing are essential for Local Control and Parental Rights!

Linda Murphy was Oklahoma Governor Keating’s Education Advisor, Deputy Commissioner of Labor for Workforce Education and Training, Administrator of the Eastern Oklahoma Department of Labor, Member of the State Job Training Coordinating Council, and the Governor’s School-to-Work Council. She was a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1994, 1998 and 2018. Murphy was appointed by Governor Keating as Secretary of Education, but was denied confirmation by the majority Democrat Education Committee, following her 49.5% statewide vote in 1994. She also served on the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women. More recently, she has served as chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party’s Committee on Education. She is chairman of the OK Educators Network. You may contact Linda at: lindalearn1@yahoo.com