Oklahoma parents are on the receiving end of a full-court press about how children here are among the nation’s worst readers.  Who’s behind the public awareness campaign filling up Facebook and Instagram feeds and spaces in local television, radio and print media right now? A philanthr opist and retired oil and gas operator in Tulsa.  At 95, John Brock said he has set aside his other longtime education project for what he sees as a kind of Hail Mary effort to drive home the fundamental importance of improving early literacy.  “The Prize is on hold. We’re working on this,” said Brock, in the midtown office where he still goes to work five days a week. “If you can’t read, you can’t work. That is the most important thing in education. And we’ve got a lot of people who can’t read.” For more than 20 years, Brock’s philanthropic work was largely focused on recognizing renowned individuals, including Khan Academy founder Sal Khan and psychologist and then-Spelman College President Beverly Daniel Tatum, with the Brock Prize for Education Innovation. The goal, Brock said, was to import to Oklahoma innovative ideas for education through an annual symposium held in Tulsa. Additionally, he endowed numerous chairs and professorships in education and engineering at Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa.  While he has a lobbyist focused on influencing lawmakers, his ad campaign, run under the banner of the recently formed Oklahoma Education Impact Initiative, is focused solely on parents. “Oklahoma’s current reading laws aren’t enough for real reading success. Help our kids. Tell your legislators to strengthen Oklahoma’s reading laws,” states an OKEII social media ad circulating this week.  Written text on the ad reads: “Teachers are doing the work. But they need more support,” and reading coaches, early screening, intervention and “retention, if necessary,” are listed as potential state policy solutions. Making parents aware of the gravity of the situation and the important role they play at home in their child’s literacy development was Step 1, according to one of Brock’s most influential advisors at OKEII. “We’ve got to change the paradigm,” Brock said. Policy Advisor Elevated A new report by the Oklahoma Center for Education Policy at the University of Oklahoma tracked the decline in student outcomes here from among the top half of states in both reading and math throughout the 1990s, to the lowest level on record last year, 48th in the nation. It is based on National Assessment of Educational Progress results, long held as the gold standard for comparing student performance over time and across states. “Oklahoma’s educational outcomes do indeed rank among the worst in the nation,” states “The Fall to 48th,” by Adam Tyner, researcher at the Oklahoma Center for Education Policy. “This low standing is consistent across subjects and grades. Oklahoma ranks near the bottom nationally in 4th grade and 8th grade reading and math, indicating systemic, not isolated, weakness.” One of his colleagues and fellow academics at OU, Dan Hamlin, served as a research advisor for OKEII.  His policy brief on holding back students not reading on grade level by the end of third grade, as well as television interviews he’s done since becoming Gov. Kevin Stitt’s secretary of education in October, are still featured on OKEII’s website. “I’ll tell you what I thought was impressive when I met him,” Hamlin said, when asked about his association with Brock and OKEII. “Usually, when you meet with wealthy individuals that want to step into the education system, they already know what they want. He was just like, `What do I know?’ I thought that was a refreshing approach, especially for someone of his stature and age and experience.  “I think he just loves Oklahoma and feels pretty strongly that we need to have better educational outcomes for our kids to be able to pursue their dreams and have better outcomes,” Hamlin said. “I think that’s what’s driving him and why they set up OKEII.” Remaining research advisors for OKEII are both at OSU – Katherine Curry, professor and Williams Chair in Higher Education who previously served as Stitt’s education secretary, and Jentre Olsen, assistant professor and Brock Chair of Innovative Educational Leadership. Hamlin said he already had a well-established relationship with members of Gov. Stitt’s staff because of his work in education policy when he met Brock.  He had to step down as a research advisor to Brock when he accepted the gubernatorial cabinet position, but he said he can see the advice he gave Brock reflected in the ad campaign now sweeping the state.  “I definitely emphasized for them the importance of early literacy, because interestingly, Oklahomans identify reading and writing as most in need of improvement in surveys of the general public,” Hamlin said. “I told him, if this organization was able to make education more a part of the conversation here in Oklahoma, I thought that would be helpful.” Price Tag for Public Awareness The little-known Oklahoma Education Impact Initiative is the name on every one of Brock’s ads to parents.  Ed Harris, head of the organization, said the vast majority of them are paid for by the Brock Family Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit best known for funding the $50,000 Brock Prize for Education Innovation. It was founded in 2000 by Brock and his late wife, Donnie. OKEII’s campaign to raise public awareness about early literacy and state policy proposals is also a family affair, as Harris, OSU Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership, is also Brock’s son-in-law. “We think education is not the panacea for everything, but it is very important for any society,” Harris said. “The better the education, the better the society. “My research at OSU had to do with culture. In my opinion, if the mindset or the culture doesn’t change, nothing’s going to change.” Getting Oklahomans, particularly parents, to feel a sense of ownership in helping confront early literacy challenges is something he and Brock solicited help with from Brock’s other son-in-law, David Downing, a retired advertising executive. “I’m not a political person at all,” Harris said. “My brother-in-law and I donate our time. John is 95, and whether he has another day or another five years, this is what he wants to do. Right now, we know there are many people who want education to be better in Oklahoma. In the political and non-political arenas, people have known it hasn’t been that great for a while.” One of OEII’s recent social media ads. (Screenshot) In keeping with IRS rules, Brock said he pays for the ads that include a call to action – in this case, to contact lawmakers to urge them to adopt new education policies to improve student outcomes in general – through contributions to People for Opportunity, a 501(c)(4) organization.  Unlike a 501(c)(3) organization, this type of social welfare organization is sometimes referred to as a dark money political group because it is allowed to engage in lobbying and its donors need not be publicly disclosed.  Unlike Harris, Brock is far from apolitical. He pays for lobbying services by Greg Piatt, a former state lawmaker from Ardmore, has donated frequently to candidates’ campaigns over the years, and he’s on the board of trustees at the conservative policy advocacy outfit Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, which shares some leaders with People for Opportunity.  But he said he doesn’t see the issue of early literacy — or the money he’s spending to shine a spotlight on it – as particularly political at all. Has the ad campaign’s price tag reached $1 million yet?  “Not quite, but if someone wants to join forces, that would be great,” Brock said, laughing. Policy Advocacy Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, is chairman of the Oklahoma State Senate education committee and a candidate for the office of state superintendent. Gauging what impact, if any, the OKEII ad campaign is having on policy discussions this session would be a chicken-or-egg debate, according to him, but he said the effort is admirable. “There’s this moment in time where there are all of these bills filed and gubernatorial candidates are talking about literacy policy,” Pugh said. “I know advocacy groups and I know Mr. Brock and I know where his passions are and I see this as an opportunity to seize on that momentum. It’s great, and I’m not thinking about it in terms of politics or policy, just in the practical terms of we will not fix this until you start with the very foundational principle that children who are read to at home and get words socialized to them from an early age show up further along, they show up more prepared. Part of this is him recognizing we can’t just keep putting more on the teacher.” Brock is quick to say his decades-long focus on how children are educated in Oklahoma likely has something to do with the fact that his grandfather, aunt, wife, and daughter were all teachers. He said the policies he is advocating for – science-based strategies for teaching reading, increasing the minimum instructional days back to the national average around 180, keeping teacher pay competitive with the neighboring states of Texas, Arkansas and Kansas, and creating bonuses for high-performing teachers, and yes, mandating third-grade retention for struggling readers – should be helpful for teachers. It’s school administrators that Brock sees as a major impediment to progress. “If we had ‘em, we wouldn’t need the laws,” Brock said. One administrator who has been publicly critical of some of the early literacy policy proposals under consideration is Terry Saul, superintendent of the 1,250-student Sequoyah Public Schools district just north of Claremore. Saul said he sees OKEII’s ad campaign as “a good cause, because it’s certainly going to take our parents seeing the big role they have in early reading.” But he said he and many other school administrators are resistant to suggestions that Oklahoma could replicate the so-called Mississippi Miracle in which fourth-grade student reading proficiency rates rose from 49th in 2013 to top-tier national rankings by 2024.  “It’s based on experience,” Saul said. “It’s based on the experience of not being involved, past reading policies being mandated and then funding for teacher training and student supports being pulled out. Why did legislators back off retention? It wasn’t because of us – it was parent resistance to not have their child retained – and now they can get a tax credit and take their child to a private school if they don’t want their child retained.” Andrea Eger covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at [email protected]. The post Ad Blitz: Parents Targeted in Push for Early Literacy Overhaul appeared first on Oklahoma Watch. ...read more read less