Executive Director

Mission Statement

To inform, innovate, and improve Oklahoma’s education system by delivering objective data, supporting high-quality educator preparation, and advancing effective practices that lead to meaningful outcomes for all students.

Role Summary

The Executive Director serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (OEQA), an independent state agency driving continuous improvement across Oklahoma’s P-20+ education and workforce pipeline. Reporting to the Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability (CEQA) led by the Secretary of Education, the Executive Director provides strategic vision, operational oversight, and cross-sector leadership across key domains including educator preparation, school performance, accountability, data transparency, and workforce alignment.

This role requires a high-capacity, forward-thinking leader who can strategically align OEQA’s mission with statewide priorities, ensure effective implementation through strong teams, and clearly communicate the agency’s value and role within Oklahoma’s education ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Policy Development

• Shape and execute OEQA’s strategic vision to support Oklahoma’s educational and workforce goals, with a focus on impact, transparency, and innovation.
• Serve as the agency’s primary legislative liaison, working with CEQA and lawmakers to recommend and support statutory or regulatory changes.
• Align OEQA’s mission and structure to statewide priorities, proactively identifying gaps in authority or clarity and advocating for appropriate legislative or strategic action.
• Lead agency-wide strategic planning efforts.
• Represent OEQA on statewide and national committees focused on educator quality, data systems, performance improvement, and workforce development.
• Engage with external experts, researchers, and partners to ensure OEQA remains on the forefront of policy and practice.
• Prepare and present high-level briefings, reports, budget proposals, and agency updates to CEQA, the Legislature, and stakeholder groups.
• Identify legacy structural challenges and strategically clarify OEQA’s statutory scope in collaboration with legal counsel and the Legislature, ensuring the agency is empowered to fully execute its mission.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to enhance OEQA’s visibility, partnerships, and perceived value among stakeholders, avoiding redundancy with other agencies and reinforcing OEQA’s independent role in Oklahoma’s education system.
  
  

Organizational Oversight and Agency Operations

• Sets the vision for OEQA’s core divisions:
• Educator Preparation and Professional Learning
• District Performance and School Reviews
• Assessment and Certification
• Data and Analytics
• Support staff, contractors and shared service partners—currently more than 20 individuals—by delegating operational execution while maintaining strategic oversight.
• Oversee budgeting, procurement, administrative rules, performance management, and ensure compliance with transparency laws and internal controls.
• Collaborate with legal counsel to clarify and align OEQA’s responsibilities and ensure the agency is fulfilling all its statutory duties.
• Approves all agency communications
  

Stakeholder Engagement and External Affairs

• Serve as OEQA’s primary liaison to the Legislature, Governor’s Office, State Department of Education (OSDE), State Regents for Higher Education, CareerTech, and other state entities.
• Facilitate partnerships with educator preparation programs, philanthropic funders, workforce leaders, and community organizations.
• Provide expert policy guidance to state and national stakeholders.
• Oversee agency communications, public relations, and open records processes to ensure transparent and timely information is shared with the public.
• Work with vendor partners to oversee contracts and ensure timely and effective delivery of services.
• Lead efforts to secure federal philanthropic grants aligned to OEQA’s mission.
  
  

Division-Specific Leadership

Educator Preparation and Professional Learning

• Oversee the approval and accreditation of Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) in Oklahoma in alignment with CAEP and state standards.
• Support the development of innovative educator pipelines, including teacher apprenticeship models and expanded pathways into teaching.
• Lead implementation and oversight of the Education Leadership Oklahoma (ELO) program and National Board Certification (NBCT) scholarships.
• Guide policy development to address the teacher shortage and improve access and quality in teacher preparation and professional learning programs.
  
  

Assessment and Certification

• Provide oversight for the state educator assessment system, including psychometric validity, test development, vendor collaboration, and policy alignment.
• Ensure rigorous, fair, and legally defensible educator assessments that meet state needs and support teacher quality.
• Support the Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP) standards-setting process to ensure that the standards are rigorous, transparent, and aligned with national benchmarks. The process should reflect college and career readiness expectations and help families understand how their students are performing compared to peers in other states and across the nation.
• Work to improve educator certification assessment, reducing unnecessary barriers while aligning assessments with high-quality evidence-based practices.
  
  

District Performance and School Reviews

• Lead the transformation of the School Performance Review process to promote continuous improvement and operational efficiency in K-12 schools.
• Oversee completion of all mandated reviews including school transfer audits.
• Direct implementation of the Oklahoma Educational Indicators Program, using meaningful metrics to evaluate district and school outcomes.
• Support state initiatives aimed at improving student performance, including implementation of the Strong Readers Act and Oklahoma Math Achievement and Proficiency Act
  
  

Data and Analytics

• Champion the development of an interagency data use and collaboration to improve P-20+ outcomes and the workforce pipeline.
• Oversee creation and maintenance of transparent, interactive dashboards and reports that provide stakeholders with timely, accurate, and meaningful data.
• Advance data innovation by developing new metrics that include non-cognitive indicators, school climate, and instructional leadership quality to help drive local decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Ensure the agency’s research and analysis functions produce actionable insights to support policy evaluation, legislative decision-making, and public understanding of educational outcomes.