EDUCATION OVERSIGHT BOARD MEETING MINUTES May 15, 2002 8:00 A.M. Oklahoma State Capitol Building Conference Room 412A Oklahoma City, OK 73105 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Pete Churchwell, Ed Long, John Rex, Kenneth Bridges, Sen. Penny Williams BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Rep. Larry Roberts, Karen Yarbrough, Ron Dryden, Don McCorkell OTHER REGULAR ATTENDEES: Secretary of Education Dr. Floyd Coppedge Office of Accountability Staff: Robert Buswell, Matt Hesser, Jerry Hsieh, Jill Jacobsen VISITORS: Pat Smith (OEA Staff) Call to Order and Roll Call: Mr. Churchwell called the meeting to order and declared a quorum present. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the April 17, 2002 meeting were approved as submitted. Report of FY 2002 Year-to-Date Expenditures: Report was distributed to board members with Mr. Buswell covering a couple of topics briefly. Discussion of FY 2002 Financial Shortfall and Projections for FY 2003: Mr. Buswell reported to the board that the office would be facing a 3.9% cut in their budget for FY-2002, but did not have time to calculate the actual dollar amount represented. He felt comfortable the office would be able to absorb the shortfall, but cautioned the board that it would leave the office with little carryover and that the office would likely face a budget cut again in FY-2003. Progress Report on Profiles 2001 Project: Mr. Buswell reported to the board that the office has completed the reports and was on schedule for all the mail-outs. He also commended the State Department of Career and Technology Education's Print Shop for producing the Profiles State Report in record time. Mr. Hesser then led the board through some of the highlights in the state report. First was the addition of kindergarten through third grade reading remediation rates to the socioeconomic variance page. It turned out that the percentage of students needing reading remediation fluctuated greatly from county-to-county and district-to-district and that the distribution did not match other socioeconomic indicators, as would have been expected. Dr. Coppedge pointed out that schools received incentive money from the state based on the percentage of students in need of remediation. Hesser also reminded the board that not all schools used the same tests to identify students, rather, they were able to pick from a number of tests that had been approved by the State Department of Education. Hesser continued with a discussion about suspension data, the fact that enrollments were beginning to trend down for the first time in more than 10 years and that teacher counts and salaries were on the rise. A long discussion then arose when Hesser had board members compare two county maps, one that plotted utilization of bonding capacity and another that plotted expenditures per ADM. It turned out that some of the counties with the highest expenditures per student, also had some of the lowest bonded indebtedness. The presentation next covered state test results. Hesser reminded the board that test scores on the CRT fluctuated from one year to the next, especially when there was a change in testing companies and that for the most part, there had been a substantial decrease in student scores this year. Also, due to the introduction of the End-of-Instruction tests, the state had lost the ability to track high school performance over time. The results of the EOI tests and the old eleventh grade CRT tests were not comparable. A new series of maps, which plotted CRT and EOI results by county, showed that generally speaking, counties in northwest Oklahoma out performed counties in southeast Oklahoma. Graphs that plotted schools meeting the 70% performance benchmark also showed a decrease in performance from the previous year. The presentation moved on to the State's performance on the NAEP tests and it was demonstrated that Oklahoma had done a better job than the Nation as a whole in getting students out of the lowest performance category while at the same time having a similar number of students in the higher performance categories. A lengthy discussion followed. Hesser then had the board examine the ninth grade through graduation attrition rates. Members were very concerned by the African-American male loss rate. Hesser noted, however, that the State's official dropout rates were trending down and that graduation rates were on the rise. Dr. Coppedge reminded the board that critics of increased rigor in high school graduation requirements had argued that dropout rates would skyrocket, and that the data showed this was in fact not the case. Mr. Rex asked for the Academic Performance Index (API) score on the front of the School Report Cards to be explained. Mr. Buswell informed the board that this was the first year for the index and briefly described the methodology used by the State Department of Education to compile the number. The presentation concluded with a look at the results from the office's School Questionnaire, with the discussion focusing on the fact that 94% of school responded that they kept some type of student level records in electronic format. This was significant because it meant that it would probably not be as difficult for schools to submit records to a statewide student record keeping system as had previously been thought. Mr. Churchwell, then communicated that he was particularly pleased with this year's report and thanked the staff for their hard work on all the reports. His sentiments were seconded by Senator Williams. Report on New Legislation: HB 1335 and HB 1444 (OBEC Bill) Senator Williams spoke briefly about these issues. She stated that she would be following up soon. New Business: Mr. Buswell informed the board that two of the board member's terms, John Rex and Karen Yarbrough, will be expiring this year. Mr. Churchwell and Mr. Buswell both discussed reappointing them. Announcements: None Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 10:00 a.m. The minutes of the May 15, 2002 Meeting of the Education Oversight Board were approved (as submitted) or (with corrections) on September 18, 2002