OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma reached a new milestone on Monday with a new superintendent taking office in Oklahoma City Public Schools.

For the first time, Black women are simultaneously leading the state’s two largest school districts, OKCPS and Tulsa Public Schools.

Jamie Polk on Monday, succeeding Sean McDaniel.

Ebony Johnson became the first Black woman to lead the Tulsa district, the state’s largest by enrollment, when she was picked to be interim superintendent in September and .

Polk said she looks forward to working with Johnson to enrich students’ educational experiences and opportunities.

“It is our shared belief that every child should see themselves represented in the educators and leaders who guide them in their educational journey,” Polk said.

Tulsa schools did not return a request for comment from Johnson.

When Johnson was promoted in TPS, Oklahoma had only one other Black female superintendent working in the state at the time — Cecilia Robinson-Woods at Millwood Public Schools.

Robinson-Woods said she sees Johnson’s and Polk’s hiring as a “big step” for women, especially Black women, to be given the confidence and trust to lead a school district.

It’s also a boost in representation of groups that aren’t always well served, she said.

“It is not a secret that minority children, especially Black children, have the lowest test scores in everything,” Robinson-Woods said. “It’s not to say just because you have someone of color that things are going to change for those learners, but it does at least give you an insight, and it does at least broaden the conversation about what kids need.”

on minority students’ test scores and long-term outcomes when they have a teacher of their same race.

But the demographics of educators and school leaders in Oklahoma public schools are vastly different from that of the students they serve, . While 77% of public educators in the state are white, more than half of all students are racial or ethnic minorities.

Having diverse leadership is important in districts that want to prioritize equity, said Karlos Hill, regents’ associate professor of African and African American studies at the University of Oklahoma.

“We care about equity both in terms of making sure our kids are fairly educated, but we also should care about the people who are educating them,” Hill said, “and making sure that there’s a diverse group of, not only teachers, but diverse leadership to make sure that the policies (and) the procedures of the school are not just reflective of one group, but of the community.”

Hiring Black female superintendents is significant in the context of the state’s “long and deep history of exclusion” for people of color, said Hill, who is also the OU president’s adviser for community engagement.

That history, he said, is the reason Oklahoma didn’t reach this milestone decades ago.

“If we care about equity, we will care about that history of exclusion and the ways in which it shows up today,” Hill said.

Unlike in Tulsa, there are Black female predecessors in the Oklahoma City superintendent’s office. The first was Betty Mason in 1992, who also was the first woman and the first African American superintendent to lead OKCPS.

“We all owe her a debt of gratitude for setting the stage for the historic moment we find ourselves in today,” Polk said.

The new superintendent said her district will continue to recruit diverse teachers through its “Grow Our Own” program. The initiative, founded in 2016 at the OKCPS Foundation, covers the cost of a teaching degree for paraprofessionals working in the district.

Twenty-five teachers, most of whom are bilingual or racially diverse, have earned a bachelor’s degree through the program so far, and another 81 are on track to graduate this summer. The OKCPS Foundation launched a similar program to .

Sen. George Young, D-Oklahoma City, said he hopes Polk will continue to emphasize the teacher pipeline program and overall teacher pay. Young has represented the historically Black area of northeast Oklahoma City in the state Legislature for 10 years and is a pastor in the community.

“When you’ve got folks who look like you standing in front of you, it does make a difference,” Young said. “It doesn’t make all the difference, but it sure does make a difference. And so I hope that she will remember that and see the things that made a difference in her life. And I think that’ll make a difference in the life of our school district.”

An Iowa native, Polk spent 25 years as a teacher, principal and district administrator in Lawton Public Schools, where she moved because of her husband’s military career. McDaniel, the outgoing OKCPS superintendent, hired her in 2019 to oversee the district’s elementary schools.

Leading the neighboring district of Millwood, Robinson-Woods said she’s gotten to know Polk as a “very personable” leader and a data-driven problem solver.

Similar descriptions have been applied to Johnson, who is from the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Johnson was raised in Tulsa and spent her entire career in the district when the local school board promoted her from chief academic officer to superintendent.

Like Johnson, this is Polk’s first superintendent job, one she said she’s “deeply honored” to accept.

“Moving forward, OKCPS will remain steadfast in our dedication to cultivating leadership that reflects the vibrant tapestry of the communities we serve,” Polk said.

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But then Hofmeister, a former teacher and onetime owner of a Tulsa tutoring company, put half a million miles on her car traveling throughout the state. She listened as educators spoke of the challenges facing small-town schools. 

“She was willing to listen and learn by getting out into our districts,” Ford said.

Educational options in those communities are now center stage as voters prepare to choose their next governor. Incumbent Gov. Kevin Stitt is campaigning on a statewide platform and promises to “support any bills … that would give parents and students more freedom to attend the schools that best fit their learning needs.”

A that died in the Senate earlier this year would have opened them to children in families that earn roughly three times what it takes to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, with most awards ranging from $5,900 to about $8,100. Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, a Republican, has pledged to if Stitt wins.

But Hofmeister, who switched parties to challenge Stitt as a Democrat, has called the proposal a because it would pull funding from traditional districts.

“I have gone to those communities that have lost their school, and then they lose their town,” Hofmeister told ����Ӱ��. 

As the leader of one of the reddest states in the country, Stitt fully embraces the GOP education agenda, from how teachers discuss race and gender to a policy that allowed students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. In his State of the State this year, he said, “God gave kids to parents — not the government!” He , who is finishing her second term, for a lack of improvement in Oklahoma schools, while she points to financial scandals under his watch.

show Stitt’s lead over Hofmeister shrinking — a reflection, some say, of the power of her message about rural schools. 

“We’ve hit on an issue that strikes at the heart of a community’s identity,” said Amber England, a public affairs and political consultant who previously ran an education nonprofit. 

A Hofmeister supporter, England said Stitt might roll into a rural town “with a hat on and cowboy boots,” but doesn’t grasp that his proposal won’t help students in remote areas without private schools.

Rural schools depend more on state funding than those with a larger tax base, said Ford, executive director of the Organization of Rural Oklahoma Schools. Vouchers, he said, could translate to an annual loss of $350 million in funding for public schools.

“We’re worried about money,” he said. “Anytime you take money out of the formula, how are you going to replace it?”

But Trent England, a fellow at the conservative Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, accused Hofmeister of seeking to preserve a one-size-fits-all system and “trying to scare people” by implying vouchers will shutter rural schools — often the largest employers in these towns. 

“There are serious problems in public schools, and that’s not limited to urban areas,” said England, who is not related to Amber England. 

‘Hard feelings’

On his campaign website, Stitt said Hofmeister hasn’t done enough to fix Oklahoma’s schools, which have ranked low for decades. The 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress put the state among those performing the U.S. average in math and reading. 

Hofmeister said one way to improve schools is to address the state’s teacher shortage. She has proposed a $5,000 as part of a budget request for next year’s legislative session. Meanwhile, Stitt proposed a bill that would push some teacher salaries to as high as . But the only legislation that passed was a new incentive and scholarship to push high schoolers to major in education when they go to college. 

Oklahoma teachers haven’t had a substantial raise since 2018, when the legislature passed a $6,100 increase, falling short of the $10,000 they asked for. They walked out for nine days, part of the wave of “Red for Ed” demonstrations across the country. Walking out even after lawmakers boosted their pay, Ford said, “created hard feelings between the teachers and legislators” that linger today. 

“Our teachers don’t feel respected,” he said. 

Those feelings have only increased with Republicans’ efforts to clamp down on lessons and educator training that address institutional racism, . In July, the state board of education the Tulsa district’s accreditation after a state prompted by Stitt concluded the district’s training materials violated the state’s law banning critical race theory. 

“I firmly believe that not one cent of taxpayer money should be used to define and divide young Oklahomans by their race or sex,” he said in on the audit. “Let’s teach students, not indoctrinate them.” 

Ryan Walters — the state’s education secretary, a new position created by the governor — has tweeted calling out teachers he says push far-left ideology. Walters, who is running for state superintendent, trails Democrat Jena Wilson, a middle school teacher in Oklahoma City, according to a released last month.

“Many teachers state they don’t know how they will be able to remain teaching should the outcome of the race be a win for both men,” said Stacey Woolley, president of the Tulsa Board of Education. “Many have directly said they will resign immediately.”

‘Overseeing the money’

In addition to decrying Stitt’s culture war focus, his critics draw attention to the misuse of $650,000 in federal relief funds distributed through ClassWallet, an online payment system for educators. Walters oversaw the $8 million program, which offered $1,500 grants to low-income families for educational expenses. 

But some spent the money on video games, Christmas trees and cookware, a . that in his role as executive director of an education nonprofit, Walters helped ClassWallet secure the contract. The ClassWallet’s parent company, Kleo Inc., for breach of contract.

Stitt’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment. 

With Hofmeister and Stitt scheduled to debate on the 19th and the election still weeks away, the race is expected to be close. 

Kenneth Hicks, a political science professor at Rogers State University, said the results might hinge more on voter reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in , which took away the constitutional right to abortion and returned the decision to the states. 

“It was easy as a campaign issue for Stitt to say he would sign any ,” Hicks said “Republicans may be finding themselves regretting jumping on that issue with both feet.”

Regardless of the reason for the race’s narrowing gap, some of Stitt’s supporters are nervous.

“For Republicans, it’s certainly closer than it should be,” Trent England said, but added Oklahomans are “staunchly pro-life” and support the governor’s opposition to transgender females using girls’ locker rooms. 

In a state that was solidly Democratic until its Congressional delegation began to shift in the 1980s, Amber England is hoping for an upset. As someone who led a successful campaign in the state in 2020, she’s seen surprises on Election Day.

“Voters don’t get enough credit for making good decisions at the ballot box,” she said. “If we’re able to run a race in Oklahoma on the issue of protecting public schools, that’s a game changer for our friends across the country.”

Released Tuesday by researchers at Georgetown University, the results show that young adults who attended a universal pre-K program in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as 4-year-olds were more likely to graduate from high school on time and enroll in college than peers who didn’t attend.

They’re also more civically engaged. The percentage of former pre-K students who registered to vote and actually cast ballots was 4.5 points higher than for those who started kindergarten without pre-K.

“Middle class kids benefit from a strong program,” said William Gormley, a professor and co-director of the Center for Research on Children in the U.S. “Disadvantaged kids benefit even more.”

Presented at Georgetown, the findings, based on a sample of over 4,000 students, build on more than two decades of work from Gormley and colleagues to determine the lasting benefits of state-funded preschool programs. The researchers also discussed new results from a second study that shed light on whether the benefits of pre-K withstood the pandemic.

At a time when schools are under pressure to reverse learning loss and increase performance beyond pre-pandemic levels, Gormley stressed that classroom quality and connections to the K-12 system matter. 

In an interview, he acknowledged recent disappointing showing worse results for those who attended that state’s program. Tennessee’s program primarily serves those from low-income families. The Vanderbilt University study concluded that improving the quality of the elementary schools those students later attend could boost results, and the state has since . Gormley said that because Oklahoma’s program has always been open to all 4-year-olds, not just poor children, there’s a stronger effect on the K-12 system.

Oklahoma launched its program in 1998 as essentially a new grade level. of the state’s 4-year-olds participated in 2020, but enrollment dropped to 64% during the pandemic. Teachers are fully credentialed and receive additional early-childhood training. Originally, classes were primarily in elementary schools. In Tulsa, many are also in “well-staffed” Head Start centers, which, Gormley said, likely contributed to stronger results.

While President Joe Biden campaigned on adding two years of free preschool to the public education system, he failed to get the proposal through Congress. For now, states wanting to emulate Oklahoma’s model are on their own

“I would love to see the federal government step up and do more in early childhood,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. He joined the event virtually to discuss the 2020 state ballot measure establishing a nicotine tax to pay for preschool for all 4-year-olds. “If it can pass in a purple state like Colorado with 67% of the vote, there ought to be a package that gets 65 or 70 votes in the U.S. Senate.” 

Colorado became the eighth state with universal pre-K. Polis, who championed the effort, in May creating the program. While the law guarantees children 10 hours of pre-K per week, starting in the fall of 2023, he said he hopes most districts will push beyond that to at least 12 hours.

But he said many policymakers are reluctant to consider benefits that won’t emerge until children are in high school. 

“In the short term, I think one of the appeals to the business community, to many Republicans, is the workforce benefit,” he said. “This empowers a second parent returning to work, helps a single mom struggling to get by.”

A frequent argument against public funding for pre-K is that any boost in achievement in the early grades fades by the time children reach third grade and beyond. Anna Johnson, an associate professor of psychology at Georgetown who is leading a second Tulsa pre-K study, noted that the gains for former pre-K students don’t disappear. Children who did not attend catch up after entering school.

Gormley’s research shows that some advantages of attending pre-K persist well beyond the early grades, while there are little to no positive effects in other areas.

For example, earlier from the Tulsa study showed that in high school, former pre-K students were less likely to fail classes and repeat a grade, and were more likely to take advanced courses. But they didn’t have higher test scores or grades than those who weren’t in the program. 

When researchers examined student performance in middle school, they saw no impact of pre-K on students’ attitudes toward school and their likelihood of risky behavior, including smoking, drug use or early sexual activity. But those who attended pre-K were more likely to take honors courses and have better attendance. 

“Researchers who study early-childhood should not put all their eggs in a standardized test basket,” Gormley said. “There are lots of other crazy, scary, but wonderful things happening to kids’ lives. It’s a mistake to avoid those other choices.” 

Pandemic-era data

Emerging results of focus on children only from low-income families who began Head Start at 3 and entered Tulsa’s pre-K program at 4. They were in first grade when the pandemic began.

The researchers, led by Johnson and Deborah Phillips of Georgetown, found and noted that children’s home lives before the pandemic predicted whether they were able to keep learning when schools closed. If there wasn’t enough to eat, parents were depressed or the environment was chaotic, children were less likely to participate in remote learning.

But despite school closures, they found that last school year, third graders who had two years of preschool still had more complex vocabularies and stronger math skills than those who did not . They were also better able to manage their behavior and emotions and had better working memories — what Johnson calls a “mental desktop.”

“These are the skills that underlie success in school and in life,” she said.

Phillips, a psychology professor at Georgetown who has worked with Gormley on the study from the beginning, said both studies reveal elements of high-quality programs, such as well-trained teachers and support for instruction, that contribute to strong results. 

Policymakers, she said, shouldn’t cut corners.

“Don’t take anything away from it. Keep your [bachelor’s]-level teachers. Keep the incredible professional development that you do,” she said. “Don’t feel like ‘We can start chipping away at it.’ That would be a really bad thing.”