State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister has hired longtime Oklahoma Christian University School of Education professor for first cabinet-level position.
Robyn Miller, Oklahoma Christian Department of Education chair, will oversee policy research and development, as well as teacher quality initiatives for the state Education Department. An official title for Miller will be determined next month.
“I am excited and grateful that Dr. Miller will be joining my leadership team,” Hofmeister said in a public statement. “Her keen intellect, breadth of experience and commitment to education make her a tremendous asset.”
Miller said she started talking with the new superintendent about a state position in early December.
“I followed her all year in the campaign,” Miller said. “I would end up at different events and things and she would speak. … We began to talk about someway I could contribute to the staff.”
Miller’s career has centered on education. She taught English language arts at Edmond Memorial High school from 1985 to 1995, then she began an almost 20-year career as a professor in Oklahoma Christian’s School of Education.
“I think even after teaching for ten years, being in teacher preparation at Oklahoma Christian – it allowed me to stay in the classroom because we would go out and observe our student teachers and our practicum students,” Miller said.
Miller said it’s important for the state Education Department to have people familiar with the current classroom climate, and Miller has stayed involved in the classroom.
“It’s not as though I’ve been so far removed having left the classroom in common ed in 1995, but really I’ve been in schools of all kinds since then,” Miller said.
In her new role, Miller would have the opportunity to influence education policy, and she plans to do that and more.
“I’m certainly interested in policy, but more specifically I’m interested in teacher quality,” Miller said.
There’s a nation-wide teacher equity project that Miller wants Oklahoma to take part in. The project encourages states to provide a plan for teacher equity, so that effective teachers get into all fields of education and in all classrooms, specifically high poverty zones.
Miller said she wants to increase teacher compensation and better the Oklahoma Academic Standards. She also wants to examine the A-F report cards for school districts to figure out the best practices on how the grade can be best calculated.
Miller is taking a leave of absence from Oklahoma Christian, but she won’t be completely gone. She will continue teaching a class this semester and will be involved in key departmental decisions.
“Oklahoma Christian as a university has been so gracious to allow me to follow this calling,” Miller said. “This is really not a great time — as far as timing in an academic school year — for me to say, ‘well I have this opportunity and I would like to leave right in the middle of the school year.’ Everyone has been so gracious and supportive. I’m just very thankful for that.”
Associate Professor of Education Darin Martin will serve as the Department of Education interim chair during Miller’s absence.
“I think after this semester – it’s sort of an agreement I guess with the university that I would continue to teach at least one class each year and possibly two if needed, and I’m happy to do that,” Miller said.
Miller said she wants Oklahoma Christian education students to follow his or her passions.
“The passion I have has caused me to take this opportunity and transition into another avenue for education improvement,” Miller said. “It is a pure passion and I understand that when people go into education that it is still very much noble to think that you can make a contribution on a small scale or a large scale. Hopefully they still see that to be a noble calling to them.”
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