OK Anti-Woke Teachers Test From Prager U Is Impossible To Fail
from the what's-the-point-of-this-again? dept
The Ryan Walters saga of stupid continues. Walters is the Superintendent of Oklahoma, where he oversees a state education system that ranks near the bottom among states, while also carving out time to lick Donald Trump’s boots as thoroughly as possible. Between naked attempts to sell the Trump bible in state schools and attempting to make Trump’s favorite election conspiracy theories part of the state’s curriculum, you would think that he would be in MAGA’s good graces. Unfortunately, due to his own verbal missteps and a strange occurrence of mild porn showing up on a TV screen in a school board meeting, the administration has been giving him the cold shoulder as of late.
Perhaps as part of a plan to get back in MAGA’s good graces, Walters also announced that transplant teachers from “woke” states like New York and California would be forced to take an “anti-woke” teaching exam before being granted a teacher’s license. This supposed exam was to be developed by Prager U, itself a propaganda outfit run by Dennis Prager.
Here’s how Walters described the test back when we first wrote about it.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent for public instruction, told CNN that if applicants do not pass the test, they will not earn a teaching certificate to be able to teach in public schools in the state this school year, which begins for some Oklahoma districts on Monday. The superintendent’s office notified CNN on Friday that it had not yet been released as of noon, but that it was coming soon.
So, if you don’t pass the test, you don’t get a teacher’s license. I asked at the time what was to keep so-called nefarious, woke-minded, uber-communists from the Soviet states of New York and California from simply, you know, lying on the tests?
Well, it turns out I was overthinking it even by wondering that out loud. It turns out that the test is one in which failure is impossible.
First reported by Quorum Call’s Shawn Ashley, the 34-question test is available on the state department’s website. StateImpact took the test and confirmed it is impossible to fail. If test-takers respond incorrectly, they’re prompted to try again until they land on the correct answer. The test includes several questions on biological sex and transgender rights, as well as others on civics and U.S. history.
At the end, test-takers are presented with a certificate affirming the “demonstrated understanding of foundational civic knowledge and commitment to traditional American values, in alignment with the educational principles upheld by the State of Oklahoma.”
And so the open question is that what is the point of this test, other than more performative ego-fondling of the Trump administration? A test you can’t fail certainly isn’t “weeding out” all of these woke transplants looking to move to Oklahoma from the coasts. A test that let’s you keep answering the question until you get it “right” is less about withholding teacher’s licenses and more about the compulsory affirmation of Walters’ personal beliefs before the license is granted. So what are we even doing here?
Asked if a test that’s impossible to fail is effective at achieving this goal, Walters’ office did not respond.
“Sorry, that is not right. Try again.” This isn’t WarGames. Not playing is not an answer.
Filed Under: education, maga, oklahoma, performative nonsense, ryan walters, teachers, woke
Companies: prageru
Comments on “OK Anti-Woke Teachers Test From Prager U Is Impossible To Fail”
At the risk of invoking Poe’s Law:
“Getting the radical leftist pinko woke SJW MSM-gobbling groomers to kneel and admit defeat, to acknowledge the fundamental and incontrovertible truth of my beliefs, and give me something to point at later and go but look here you said THIS in order to get that job, that makes you a HYPOCRITE (the worst thing you can be). See!? We got you to admit it once!”
Re: I just doubt he believes in anything enough for your idea
My thought was more:
1) signaling: red meat to the Okie dopies to help him with his run for governor/etc that is surely coming, and/or more “notice me senpai” to Trump
2) corruption: it would not surprise me in the slightest if he has some kind of sweetheart deal with Prager in exchange for giving them state funds to do basically nothing
It's a setup, of course
A test that is impossible to fail is guaranteed to pass.
Passing gives a certificate that proves a) you took it b) you passed it c) in passing it, you were exposed to the “right” answers/information d) in passing it, you showed that you do indeed know the right answers/information.
If you later teach something they don’t like, not only can they prove, in court, that you knew what you were supposed to/not supposed to teach, they can then e) shitcan you or f) possibly sue you for breach or some such.
So indeed, the only winning move is, in fact, not to play. But you knew that, because you’re a woke snowflake from NY/CA, so I don’t know why you’re moving to and trying to teach in that godforsaken land anyway.
Re: This is a known gray zone
Teachers often care about their students enough to pass the real info. A common(? rhetorical) matter is talking about consent in comprehensive sex ed that doesn’t mandate it (or really anything beyond contraception and STDs). Then John Oliver’s coverage of sex ed included a bit on a teacher doing an extra credit presentation about how to roll your sock onto the foot (leaving a bit of extra space for the toes). The metaphor was obvious.
Woke information really explains itself. You can make a conservative talking point and then present the real data, and watch as the students [you can reach] see the conflict between what data indicates and what the PragerU talking points are.
It’s also funny, if you do it right. Do this enough, and your students will well wait a minute… their way into some critical thinking skills.
It’s teaching them the way that Monopoly (Parker Bros, Milton Bradley) teaches the outcomes of supply-side economics and late-stage capitalism: only one person has all the money and property in the end, and all players are pissed off at each other.
Re:
Exactly. Years from now there will be a deposition that goes like this:
“Is this your signature on this test?”
“Yes.”
“And on question four, you answered that there are only two genders. correct?”
“Yes.”
“So then why did you teach your students something that you knew to be false?”
And at that point they’re either in trouble for perjury, having their license revoked, or both. This is straight up entrapment.
Re: Re:
A: The test would not proceed until i selected the answer it wanted. Just as you are doing today.
Sup. Ryan Walters would have been better off collaborating with Sen. Raphael Cruz to assemble a quiz about appropriate venues for porn enthusiasm.
50 being bigger than 48 must be why Waters is working so hard to make Oklahoma rank 50th in education.
Re:
You sure he knows 50 is bigger than 48?
Normalization. Punishment.
That’s what they want to do with it. Also who says simply passing it will be enough.
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Can't Claim Ignorance
This test has the potential to provide an avenue for firing teachers for giving instructions in the classroom contrary to the test.
As an example, Question #6 reads: Should teachers be allowed to express their own political viewpoints in the classroom in order to persuade the students to adopt their point of view? (Answer: D. No, the classroom is not an appropriate venue for political activism.)
Should the teacher then engage in political activism, the school can then fire the teacher for cause. School systems can then point to both their policy, and the fact that the teacher answered the question correctly on the test.
Re:
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Re:
Making an anti-woke test for changing teachers’ behavior in the classroom is putting political activism in the classroom.
Re:
Like oh so many things, you have no idea how employment law works. Or the law in general.
Re:
I appreciate that you don’t actually think critically about anything and feel it necessary to rationalize the party line at the cost of the dignity you don’t have, but political activism in the course of their duties is already something teachers can be fired for without the test. I’ll forgive your ignorance of education seeing as how you clearly never finished tenth grade.
The greater irony of you bringing that particular question up is that Walters is literally mandating his own political viewpoints when creating policies for the state, including dictating subjective and counterfactual claims be treated as fact.
Re: If only..
… that was true, Because then, Walters is about to be heist on his own petard, because his new curriculum, pretty much mandates that Oklahoma teachers engage in -right wing- political activism.
Re:
Sorry Koby, that is not right. Try again.
And please tell us how this Prager U test is preventing a teacher of engaging in political activism. It’s just to ensure you’ve read this article.
Re:
*political views you don’t like.
Because fuck wads like you sure as hell won’t fire a teacher for praising trump and telling their students to vote for him.
Re:
Yeah, teachers aren’t allowed to do that.
But their Republican bosses are, given that Walters, his cronies in the Oklahoma education system, and the Oklahoma state government are all trying to either bend public education to the will of the GOP’s political ideology or destroy the public education system in favor of private religious schools. Or do you seriously believe Walters wouldn’t jump at the chance to force Christian prayers on non-Christian students in public schools?
If this is the idea of a test from Prager U, I fear them getting their “educational” content into schools.
Just keep clicking till you get the “right” answer.
Re:
The test has to be made the way that even the stupidest can pass it.
Can you imagine the damage to both Walters and Prager when a MAGA-WASP would fail the test that many DEI candidates would easily pass.
This is the kind of test that they need to start giving their students–keep trying till the answer is right. That’ll certainly raise scores across the state; every kid will get every answer correct. OK, Oklahoma!
Of course the test has a purpose:
The point is weeding out people who put truth over obedience. Indoctrination is a multi-generational effort.
Teachers who are so stupid to believe all that nonsense don’t have the intelligence of persuading smart students. You need teachers smarter than that who are willing to teach their students what they know themselves to be wrong.
If you refuse to lie on a test, you are unsuitable. If you can be made to lie on a test, that is the first step towards making you lie to your pupils.
Once you go to the site, and look at it, the answer is obvious…
It’s the same scam, that you see on social media from groups like TPUSA, Hillsdale, Focus on the Family.. etc.. where they offer a “survey” that’s a pack of loaded questions.
First off, it’s a push poll… the loaded questions are a trick to get you to read their propaganda.
Secondly and more importantly it’s an email harvesting scheme…
That’s the reason, right there…
Also, PragerU is probably being paid by the OSDE to “administer” the test, so there’s grift on the side as well.
(Tangent warning)
Personally, I was a bit more alarmed by “Urgent Petition”, on the landing page of the OSDE, where he’s trying to leverage hungry kids to give himself line by line control of every local school budget in the state.
He’s created an unfunded mandate for every school to provide free meals to each child..
Now, free meals for school kids I can get behind, but..
It’s the state legislature’s place to impose it, not the state superintendent..
Whoever does impose it should fund it as well.
Obviously Walters being an reactionary authoritarian that’s not happening
The kicker here is the mechanism.. every school would have to submit an itemized budget to him. Walters then gets to tell them what items to cut, to pay for free meals, it’s obvious that he’ll probably have some bias in those suggestions. schools that don’t comply, get their accredation and funding yanked..
Oh, and as an aside.. all foods in the schools have to be MAHA Brain worm standards compliant as well,
It takes the bare minimum amount of neurons to figure out by now that you just need to choose the most science-devoid, lunacy-filled, dumb alternatives and you’ll get the spirit of MAGA and their supporters and pass the exam.
How many people?
Just how many teachers actually move from California and New York actually move to OK each year? Perhaps there are some couples that move for the other partner’s job?
Perhaps there are anti-woke teachers who move to an anti-woke state from CA or NY?
I suspect that it is single digits.
Annually:
5-10 married people moving for their partner’s job.
10-15 people originally from that state moving back to take care of a sick/aging family member.
1-5 successful-but-single businesswomen who go there during the holidays and then get stuck living the plot of a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Re:
Laura Loomer and Kevin Sorbo star in I’ll Be Anti-Woke for Christmas, coming this December!
AND STILL
No legal deffinition of WOKE.
At least Ask those that tell us “You are Woke”
I tell them YES, I WOKE UP this morning, Why havnt you?
Ryan Walters knows there are only two genders because he has thoroughly studied a lot of explanatory material.
The only winning solution is not to move to a state that hates education
The real kicker of course is that while the test may be literally impossible to fail the act of taking it means you already did.
And when I tried to take the test from the library (my only internet access) out of curiosity, it was blocked for the following reason: “Content of type Intolerance ( Domain/URL filtering ) blocked.” Says it all, really. I wonder when Starmer will use the Online ‘Safety’ Act to overturn that.