OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma State Department of Education likely would contradict state law if it implements an ideological test for teachers coming from certain states, said the leader of another state agency that oversees teacher assessments.

Requiring an “America First” assessment for teachers moving from progressive states like California and New York, as state Superintendent Ryan Walters pledged to do, would step outside the authority Oklahoma law grants to the state Department of Education, wrote Megan Oftedal, executive director of the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, in an email to her agency’s governing board on Monday.

“This is not the first instance in which (the state Department of Education) has acted in ways that appear to exceed its legal authority, and the pattern raises ongoing concerns about governance and the proper exercise of statutory responsibility,” Oftedal wrote in the email, which Oklahoma Voice obtained through a records request.

A spokesperson for Walters’ administration, Quinton Hitchcock, said Tuesday that neither the state Legislature nor the Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability, which governs Oftedal’s agency, “has any control over teacher certifications” ...

https://oklahomavoice.com/2025/08/26/walters-america-first-teacher-test-could-overstep-oklahoma-law-state-agency-leader-says/