Stitt: Walters, OSDE need to be held accountable in U.S. News rankings fiasco
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt says State Superintendent Ryan Walters and other Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) leaders need to be held "accountable" after News 4 reported OSDE did not submit some key data to U.S. News and World Report, causing Oklahoma schools to plummet in the publication’s yearly rankings.
On Tuesday, News 4 reported OSDE didn’t allow U.S. News and World Report to look at Advanced Placement (AP) testing data for Oklahoma high schools the past two years, causing many Oklahoma schools to drastically fall in U.S. News’s annual rankings. Some schools fell more than 100 spots in the Oklahoma rankings, and even more in the national rankings.
News 4 found the issue only began once State Superintendent Ryan Walters took office in January 2023, and the data had been successfully submitted under previous administrations.
When News 4 asked OSDE why the data was not made available to U.S. News, an OSDE spokesperson claimed the data may have been lost in the mail.
“If they've missed something on getting [Oklahoma schools] up for a ranking, then we need to do a better job,” Stitt told reporters at his weekly press conference on Friday. “Don't give them the gun to shoot us with, right? We want to make sure that we're promoting Oklahoma. And if so, if there's something that we didn't do correctly, then let's fix it.”
Stitt pointed out the U.S. News and World Report rankings play a factor for families and businesses when choosing whether to locate in Oklahoma.
“That's the thing with statistics,” Stitt said. “We want to get all the information up there. We want to make sure that we're comparing apples to apples. We know I would put Oklahomans up against anyone from a workforce standpoint. We need more AP programs in there.”
When asked if he has spoken to State Superintendent Ryan Walters about the issue yet, Stitt told he reports he had not.
Stitt also said Walters—and anyone else at OSDE whose responsibility it was to ensure U.S. News received the data—should have to answer for the mistake.
“Sometimes things slip through or somebody messes up on something, and we need to obviously hold those folks accountable,” Stitt said. “And let's get every piece of good information up we can to promote Oklahoma.”