STATE ISSUES 2023 EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION The Chamber steadfastly supports early childhood education and full funding of Pre-K and kindergarten programs. Targeted spending on our youngest children is simply a smart investment. LONG-TERM, STRATEGIC EDUCATION FUNDING The Chamber supports development of a long-term, strategic plan that will enable improvement in classroom teaching and academic performance. This should include increasing the minimum number of instructional hours, currently 1,080 hours, required for a complete school year. We also support ongoing funding to enable schools to achieve targeted classroom sizes.
• Support continued investment in the “Inspired to Teach” scholarship and incentive program. • Increase access to STEM education and training opportunities. ADJUNCT, ALTERNATIVE AND EMERGENCY CERTIFIED TEACHERS The Chamber recognizes the need for Adjunct, Alternative and Emergency certified teachers will continue to increase. We support efforts to increase retention and make sure these teachers are as prepared as possible and as quickly as possible. We support: • Alternative pathways, such as Teach for America, which enhance the diversity of the teaching profession. • Providing additional pre- and post-school year pathway preparation program that comprehensively prepare teachers who meet state requirements. • Implementing incentives, such as stipends, scholarships or salary grade adjustments, to increase completion of comprehensive professional development and reduce the timeframe it takes to complete comprehensive professional development. ATTRACT AND DEVELOP HIGH-PERFORMING SCHOOL LEADERS Top-notch school leadership by school superintendents and principals is critical to school performance, teacher retention and school culture. The Chamber supports the creation and implementation of initiatives that attract, retain and develop innovative and high-performing school leaders.
TEACHER PREPARATION, RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
Oklahoma has a teacher shortage. Oklahoma needs to improve our teacher preparation pipeline systems to train, attract and retain more high-quality teachers. We support legislation to: • Reward teacher performance and experience. • Incentivize teachers to work in high priority areas and receive training to help them prepare for challenges facing students such as being English language learners, living in high poverty and from urban areas. • Support specialized “grow your own” training initiatives such as the Foundation for OKCPS Bilingual & Diversity Teacher Pipeline program and UCO’s Urban Teacher Preparation Academy. • Implement teacher retention and mentor teacher programs.
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