Operational Assessment of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission
LOFT Note on SDE Survey
LOFT is providing the results of the survey of exiting teachers provided by the State Department of Education, however, LOFT cannot endorse the validity of the results and cautions against drawing any conclusions from the survey due to the following data deficiencies:
- SDE reported that the survey results are from 36 respondents, but did not report the total population size (total number of teachers exiting). Therefore, LOFT cannot determine if 36 respondents reflect a valid or representative sample size.
- The survey results are from September-November 2024, which is not a full school year or even a full semester, making it difficult to accurately generalize claims about the population.
- As the survey allowed respondents to leave some questions blank, the sample size from question to question cannot be assumed to be constant. These limitations on interpretation are exacerbated by the unlabeled chart axes.
- The last and most significant reason LOFT does not consider this a valid or accurate survey is the fact that SDE has posted a link to this live survey on its website (sde.ok.gov/teacher-leadership-development under the Data Initiatives header). LOFT tested the link and found it is a live link for anyone to fill and submit survey responses without any means of verifying that the respondent is or was ever a teacher. This alone compromises the data integrity and renders the survey results untrustworthy.