Insight School teachers and students make impassioned plea against in-person instruction rule change

Supporters of the Insight School, the state's only alternative virtual charter school, showed up in force Wednesday to oppose a rule change by the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

Supporters said the rule under consideration would effectively shut down the public, tuition-free school, which has an enrollment of about 1,150 students across the state.

The topic of school choice — a principle often embraced by state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters — was front and center at a public hearing at the state Education Department building.

“I have seen alternative education in the virtual setting work. It works,” said Lisa Stiefel, a science teacher at ISOK. “Students and families deserve a choice. We are a school of choice. Alternative education in Oklahoma, virtually, we’re it. Even the State Department (of Education) sends kids to us. So we obviously have something good going.”

Public hearings over agency rule changes often are held with only a smattering of attendees, but the one filled up the meeting room inside the Oliver Hodge Building with overflow seating in an adjoining hallway — much like the state Board of Education’s meetings have done in recent months, since Walters took office.

Proposed rule change would require in-person instruction for Oklahoma charter school students

All but a handful of those in attendance urged the department and the state board to reject proposed rules changes that would require students to be “physically present, in person, and on-site in the alternative education program for a minimum of 4 hours and 12 minutes a day or 756 hours in a 165-day calendar” and a certified teacher to be “physically present, in-person, and be present in the Alt Ed classroom for all program hours identified in the alternative education plan.”

According to a rule impact statement posted on the department’s website, the purpose of the proposed changes is “to update the alternative education rules in order to improve the quality of alternative education, comply with best practices for alternative education, and comply with 2019 updates to the governing statute that the State Department of Education has not previously addressed in rules.”

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The only member of the state Education Department staff who sat at the table where the state board sits during its meetings was Bryan Cleveland, the agency’s general counsel.

Only two of the 27 speakers said they supported the proposed rule changes. One of them was Chris Ducker, the principal of the alternative school in the Union Public Schools district in Tulsa.

“I am in favor of the rule change, due to the change these rules aren’t anything new to us,” he said. “I have seen firsthand what practices work for students. I believe the rule changes for this only just reinforce what we know works. This should not be a virtual-versus-in-person battle … We want virtual learning for those students who choose that, but that is not by definition what alternative education should be.”

Most of the rest of the speakers had some connection with ISOK, either as administrators, parents, teachers or students. With some choking back tears while speaking, they told of many success stories experienced by ISOK students who they said likely would have stopped pursuing educational goals if not for the alternative online option provided by the school, because of repeated failures to succeed in brick-and-mortar schools, both traditional and alternative.

They also spoke about how connections are made between students and teachers that might not otherwise happen outside a virtual setting.

“We are as in-person as you can get for these students that need our school,” said Deanna Duerson, a middle school science teacher at ISOK.

Why an organization that helps victims of trafficking chose Insight

Holly Parker, an empower education for The Demand Project, a Tulsa-based organization that works to eradicate human trafficking and other sexual exploitation of children. She said Oklahoma Department of Human Services regulations require The Demand Project to use a public school for young women who have sought their services, and “we choose Insight School of Oklahoma. We choose it specifically for the alternative options.”

Parker said more than 60% of the young women who work with The Demand Project “began with us a year or more behind” educationally. “They are very much behind and have been told for so long they are stupid … and their worth lies only in their bodies. Can you imagine throwing them into a brick-and-mortar setting in a public school? They already didn’t succeed there — why would we put them back? Insight is working, the brick-and-mortar, not so much. Why would you take what is working and give it to something that is not working? Please reject this proposal. We should maintain the choice to learn the best way you can. You would be stealing from people who have already lost too much.”

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Perhaps the most impassioned plea came from an ISOK student, Paris Davis.

“I have come so far in this school, and I have achieved dreams that I never could have imagined,” said Davis, who cried as she spoke. “This is the best school that I’ve ever been to. If you take this away, you’re stripping away peoples’ dreams to go to college and make something of themselves.”

Cleveland said all public comment that had been received by Wednesday afternoon would be made available to members of the seven-person Board of Education, of which Walters is the chairman. The board’s next meeting is set for Nov. 30. It probably won’t be known until the agenda for that meeting is posted if the state Education Department has made any changes to the proposed rules.

“We really hope our families and students had their voices heard today,” said Jennifer Wilkinson, the head of school for ISOK.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma virtual charter school supporters rally against rule change