2026 February Music Journal

NFHS Music Journal Association Report: Oklahoma

By Alex Claussen

Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association

One of the more interesting things I have learned since starting with our state activities association in July of 2022 is how different each state is set up for the music activities and all fine arts activities. In my role as the Fine Arts and Performing Arts director, I am responsible for organizing approximately 100 district, regional and state level activities for concert band, concert choir, concert orchestra, jazz band, jazz combo, marching band, and solo & ensemble. Additionally, I oversee approximately 45 qualifying speech and debate tournaments statewide, which culminate in separate large-school and small-school regional and state tournaments, as well as nine one-act play regional contests and three state-level contests.

The other most prominent music organization in our state is the OkMEA and their board employs a small staff who work with several elected officers and committee members to coordinate professional development conferences and all-state clinics for seven groups plus an intercollegiate honor band and a genre-crossing group called the Collective as well as 26 Circle the State with Song Elementary Region-level choirs. The OSSAA sanctions the OkMEA events and we work closely together to help ensure that we provide strong support for music education in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma has a population of just over four million, with approximately 30 percent of residents living in rural areas. Oklahoma has long been defined by its strong ties to both agriculture and energy. Because of this historic reliance on the energy sector, Oklahoma has experienced pronounced economic highs and lows, and during downturns, education has always experienced a disproportionate share of the negative impact. In recent years, education policy has also been significantly shaped by legislative actions and policies advanced under the previous state superintendent and by initiatives championed by the current governor, particularly the expansion of open transfers and the use of tax credits to promote private and alternative school choice. Additionally, the previous state superintendent appeared to use the office to engage in multiple culture-war battles.

During the 2024 legislative session, a required fourth credit of Math was added and our stand-alone high school fine arts graduation requirement was eliminated and replaced with a system known as Pathway Units. Under this model, students must complete six pathway units aligned to their Individual Career and Academic Plan (ICAP), choosing from a broad menu that includes advanced academics, career-technical education, concurrent college credit, world languages, and fine arts. While arts courses remain eligible to fulfill pathway units, they now compete directly with many other options and are no longer guaranteed a place in every student’s high school experience. This shift, though framed as increased flexibility, risks diminishing equitable access to arts education and undermining the long-standing role of the arts in a well-rounded secondary education.

This year’s freshman class will be the first graduating class affected by these changes. We are fortunate to have several strong music programs across our state, especially around our metro areas, and we anticipate those programs to likely not be significantly affected. However, we have 482 high schools that range in size from 6,000 students to eight (yes, you read that correctly!) and many of our smaller schools in the rural areas of the state will have a difficult time continuing to fund music instruction, especially now that it is no longer a mandated credit for graduation.

Oklahoma’s legislative session begins on the first Monday of February and ends on the last Friday in May each year. Nearly 400 bills that affect education were introduced this session and while several bills introduced could affect our state activities association and possibly music education in Oklahoma, none are as consequential as the governor’s education initiative and the resulting legislation to eliminate the OSSAA. The governor would like to see a new commission formed that would replace our current 15-member executive board and have our activities run by the state department of education.  Since that news broke recently, we have had several individuals and organizations come forward to publicly support the OSSAA. Many have cited that we are a private nonprofit membership driven organization that has been in place since 1911 and that though we may not always “get it right”, they would prefer our current structure over the state department of education taking us over. How this will play out remains to be seen, but as of now, we seem to have more support than not.

Our state orchestra contest is taking place this month, and we have so many groups entered this year for our two-day event, we are considering adding a third day next year. Participation has been trending up the last few years and we also have some districts across the Oklahoma City metro currently adding orchestra programs. It is only going to be a few more years until we start seeing groups from these programs join us at state contest.

Also starting this month, we will have 32 district level instrumental large group and solo/ensemble contests and 28 district level vocal music large group and solo/ensemble contests around our state through the middle of March. After that, we will hold several state level contests for our music groups. In music, we have 5 school classifications in Oklahoma- 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, & 6A. In late March through April, we will hold state contests for the various classifications for band and for choir (large groups). We will also host an open-class state solo and ensemble contest for instrumental (band/orchestra) and for choir. At the end of April, we will also hold a two-day state jazz band and jazz combo contest where we have traditionally had approximately 100 groups participating. The number of groups and quality of performance has impressed many of our out-of-state adjudicators in recent years.

As with any organization focused on growth and excellence, we look for ways to better serve our membership and we currently have two initiatives we are working on offering our member schools. The first is a state-level version of the NFHS Arts Excellence Award where a district that is providing their students with a great arts experience is recognized each year. We did this last year when we recognized Broken Arrow High School with both the NFHS and the OSSAA award and plan to continue this state level award as we refine our committee members, timeline, and nomination process. The other initiative we are exploring is adding a Unified Solo & Ensemble Contest experience for our neurodivergent student population. We want all students in music programs in Oklahoma to be able to participate in at least one of our many events we offer, hopefully providing them with a more enriching experience in the process. We are very much still in the infancy stage of this initiative so if your state offers a Unified music event as a contest, I would love to speak to you!

We are currently in a very busy part of the year but knowing we are positively affecting the lives of over 100,000 students across the state makes it worth it!

Alex can be reached at aclaussen@ossaa.com