BARRESI CAUGHT IN A LIE?

Superintendent of Public Instruction Shows Poor Judgement 

Oklahoma City- According to a report in Thursday’s Tulsa World, State Schools Superintendent Jaent Barresi on Tuesday told a group at the Tulsa County Republican Women’s luncheon that the authors of the report criticizing Barresi’s A-F grading system have since debunked their own report, but the authors have stated that they are standing by their original review.

The article quotes an attendee at the luncheon as saying that Barresi told them “that she would like an apology from the authors with as much fanfare as the release of the of the report.” She implied that the members of the group had renounced their findings, senior project coordinator Patrick Forsyth said, “I have no idea where that idea on the part of the superintendent came from. We are perplexed by that and don’t know what to make of it.”

The A-F grading system, a hallmark of Barresi’s administration, has been widely criticized as being both unfair and inaccurate. The team that authored the study consisted of research scientists and assistants from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University’s Center for Education Research and Evaluation. In addition, it was independently reviewed by internationally respected researchers and scholars, who concurred with the report’s findings.

Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair Wallace Collins said, “Regrettably, this is another example of the poor performance and bad behavior we have come to expect from Superintendent Barresi. I don’t know whether her remarks represent ignorance or deception, but Oklahomans deserve better.”