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OKLAHOMA CITY 鈥� While , and intensify their focus on improving Oklahoma public education, complaints have grown among teachers that they should have a more prominent role in those policy discussions.

鈥淚鈥檝e been begging people for years, for years, to ask actual teachers, 鈥榃hat do you need? What do you think would make these improvements?鈥欌�� longtime Oklahoma public school teacher Jami Cole said. 鈥淲e know what would do it, but we鈥檙e never asked. We鈥檙e just passed over for people who have more influence and power than what we have.鈥�

Education, particularly reading proficiency, is primed to be a top legislative issue over the coming year, with the Oklahoma State Chamber and new state Superintendent Lindel Fields already suggesting policy changes. Student literacy has emerged as , as well.

Two weeks ago, the State Chamber announced a platform of literacy-focused policies that would have struggling readers repeat a grade. Fields, who said improving reading levels is among his top priorities, floated the idea of , which currently sits at 181 days or 1,086 hours.

Both ideas have generated debate and opposition from educators, particularly among the 64,000-member Oklahoma Edvocates Facebook group, which Cole administers. Educators in the group have contended the suggestion of grade repetition and a longer school year are a sign that teachers aren鈥檛 consulted often enough in education policy conversations.

Cole said she opposes both ideas and sees a different set of needs from within her second-grade classroom. She has 23 students of widely varying education levels, she said, ranging from advanced to bordering on needing special education services.

More teaching aides, tutors and reading interventionists paired with smaller class sizes and properly trained teachers 鈥渋s where the focus has to be鈥� for state policymakers, Cole said.

鈥淭here鈥檚 so much going on in my classroom right now that I just have such a hard time with someone who has never been in the realm of teaching or education saying, 鈥極h, we just need to do this,鈥欌�� she said.

The State Chamber鈥檚 plan, known as 鈥淥klahoma Competes,鈥� proposes a greater investment in reading coaches to assist teachers and more training in the phonics-based science of reading, along with retaining struggling readers.

The chamber announced its education plan at its State of Business Forum with endorsements from business leaders and Republican lawmakers, but not educators.

However, when developing 鈥淥klahoma Competes,鈥� the chamber sought input from classroom teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, superintendents, higher-education experts and school leaders across the state, President and CEO Chad Warmington said in a statement.

He said the chamber鈥檚 role is 鈥渘ot to dictate classroom practice, but to support the people who do this work every day.鈥�

鈥淭eachers are the frontline of this effort, and any meaningful policy solution has to reflect their experience and earn their buy-in,鈥� Warmington said.

However, teachers still 鈥渄on鈥檛 feel like they鈥檙e being heard,鈥� said Tori Luster Pennington, president of the Oklahoma City American Federation of Teachers union, which collectively bargains on behalf of teachers in Oklahoma City Public Schools.

More interest from different groups, like the chamber, in improving education is a positive thing, she said. But her union members, who see the day-to-day realities within public schools, have given a very different list of solutions.

They cited a need for more support for students鈥� mental and behavioral health, she said. Chronic absenteeism also remains a persistent issue.

鈥淪ince COVID, even though we鈥檙e not in that same time, there鈥檚 still so many lingering effects of kids just not being ready and just not having the support that they need,鈥� Pennington said. 鈥淪o, we really just need more support and more engagement and helping those issues and those behaviors, and we really have to start there before we can add (school) days.鈥�

Fields said his remarks on lengthening the school year weren鈥檛 a formal proposal, but rather a 鈥渧ery preliminary discussion鈥� made during a TV interview. He said he had little dialogue with educators about the idea before floating it.

But, he鈥檚 since invited teachers to complete an to share their thoughts on a longer school year and to contribute other ideas for improving academic outcomes. The survey received nearly 4,000 responses after a week, Fields wrote in a Nov. 24 letter to teachers.

Fields said he intends to follow that up with visits to schools, education groups and teacher meetings with the goal of having open communication with teachers as he leads the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

Former state Superintendent Ryan Walters鈥� frayed the relationship between the agency and many educators. After Walters to lead an anti-teacher-union nonprofit, Fields, a longtime CareerTech center leader, came in with a different approach, .

鈥淚 want to visit with teachers, hear from teachers, hear their hearts and what鈥檚 on their minds,鈥� he told reporters after an Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting Nov. 20.

State leaders should consult teachers or risk losing valuable feedback, said Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa.

Waldron is a former public high school teacher elected to office amid a groundswell of support for public education in 2018.

鈥淚f teachers aren鈥檛 part of the discussion, you鈥檙e not going to get to hear from teachers who have seen what a third-grade retention test does to 8 year olds,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd if you talk about adding 15 days to the school year at a time when teacher burnout is at historic highs, then yeah, you鈥檙e not going to develop a policy that makes more people want to be teachers or stay teachers.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: [email protected].

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