Amid an ongoing instructor scarcity, Oklahoma introduced plans for a brand new take a look at to display screen academics from states thought of “woke.”
The state training division introduced Wednesday that it’s partnering with the conservative media firm PragerU to develop a brand new certification take a look at for academics relocating to Oklahoma from states with “a historical past of selling anti-American narratives.”
Whereas Oklahoma has reciprocal certification agreements with all 50 states and the District of Columbia, academics from so-called “woke” states would additionally must go a brand new take a look at of their data of the U.S. Structure, American exceptionalism, and “their grasp of elementary organic variations between girls and boys.”
“We’re sending a transparent message: Oklahoma’s faculties is not going to be a haven for woke agendas pushed in locations like California and New York,” mentioned state faculties Superintendent Ryan Walters in an announcement, including the state is devoted to “elevating a technology of patriots, not activists.”
A majority of states require further material licensure assessments from out-of-state academics, however Walters mentioned Oklahoma’s requirement is the primary of its variety within the nation.
Heather Peske, the president of the Nationwide Council on Trainer High quality, a Washington-based analysis and advocacy group, mentioned no matter academics’ subject-matter data, such a take a look at “might be a deterrent for some academics transferring to Oklahoma who don’t need to get embroiled in politics.”
The main points of the evaluation necessities are to this point unsure
The state training company offered Training Week no further particulars on how states aside from California and New York could be chosen to fall underneath the brand new necessities, past people who have “progressive training insurance policies” or “radical Leftist ideology.” Nor did the division make clear whether or not Oklahoma college students who attend teacher-preparation applications in affected states or college students from affected states who attend Oklahoma educating applications would fall underneath the brand new requirement.
The state is finalizing the brand new evaluation with PragerU within the subsequent few weeks, and in an announcement to Training Week, Walters mentioned it will be in place by the beginning of the 2025-26 college 12 months. Nevertheless, the division didn’t make clear whether or not out-of-state educators employed to show within the 2025-26 college 12 months must go the brand new requirement earlier than beginning this fall.
In that case, that will show a hurdle for the state’s current efforts to attract in out-of-state academics.
Already, the state struggles with its academics crossing the border into New Mexico, Colorado, or Texas, the place they will usually earn more money. The common instructor wage in Oklahoma is $61,686, in keeping with a 2025 Nationwide Training Affiliation estimate.
Oklahoma didn’t present particulars of what number of academics from New York or California have sought to relocate to the state, however as of 2025, New York academics made on common greater than $98,000 and California academics’ pay topped $100,000.
Trainer workforce research in 2021 and 2024 discovered that recruitment and retention continues to be an issue for the state, notably in rural districts and precedence topics like STEM and particular training. The Sooner State depends closely on emergency licensed academics who haven’t any formal coaching to fill within the gaps.
Citing “persistent shortages” in particular training and secondary science and math, Oklahoma has because the 2023-24 college 12 months provided a number of rounds of signing and retention bonuses—some for as a lot as $50,000—for licensed academics who commit to show in Oklahoma public faculties, so long as they haven’t taught in any Oklahoma public faculties the prior college 12 months. The training company caught flak from the state legislature for a botched implementation of the bonuses in 2023.
The brand new certification take a look at comes on the heels of the state’s transition this June from the portfolio-based Praxis Efficiency Evaluation for Lecturers to a brand new state-developed multiple-choice and constructed-response Evaluation of Skilled Information for all grade ranges and topic areas.
Nevertheless, Oklahoma doesn’t require elementary instructor candidates to go separate math or studying licensure assessments. NCTQ’s most up-to-date state coverage stories rated the state’s optionally available subject-matter assessments as “acceptable” or “weak.”
“Robust licensure assessments are crucial guardrails guaranteeing academics have the data to be efficient,” Peske mentioned, however advisable the state concentrate on enhancing studying and math licensure assessments typically as a substitute of introducing an evaluation for academics from particular states.
