OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Public comment is now available for a revised version of Oklahoma’s social studies standards, after the state Supreme Court found former State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ controversial version unconstitutional.
Standards are a guideline for what students are expected to know in the classroom.
Determining them is a detailed yet routine process conducted every six years. They are not headline grabbing material, but Walters’ way of going about them—was.
The OSDE held a press conference on February 5 to explain the standards process and how the Walters’ leadership went awry.
Sharon Morgan, the OSDE’s standards director, says the process began in 2024, as usual, with a writing team.
After the writing team comes up with a draft, it is given to an executive team. Typically, the executive team is made up of OSDE staff or cabinet members.
“This is where it veered a little bit from the normal process,” said Morgan. “There was an executive team created by our previous superintendent [Walters], and they created another set [of standards].”
This executive team was primarily not made up of educators and was overwhelmingly composed of politically driven individuals. The team included conservative talk show hosts Steve Deace and Dennis Prager, as well as the founder of PragerU.
The standards created by Walters’ executive team received nationwide attention and significant criticism, particularly standards regarding COVID conspiracies, Bible stories, and the 2020 election.
The revised version, ready for public comment in 2026, widely reflects the original version compiled by the writing team.
“I want to reiterate that the draft out for public comment does not have the content from the executive team,” said Morgan. “A few things were reworded for more neutral content, but the executive team content was removed.”
Speaking of neutral, the press conference appeared purposefully free of denigration. Walters was never mentioned by name.
Public comment is available until February 28. Officials say they hope to get it to the board for a vote in March.
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