Jan. 10—Some educators are touting A state report cards while other administrators question their low marks.
The Oklahoma Department of Education recently released A-F report cards on each public school. Schools receive letter grades on overall performance, academic achievement, improvement from previous year, chronic absenteeism and English language proficiency progress. High schools also are graded on graduation rates.
Both Warner Elementary and Warner High received overall A grades. School Superintendent David Vinson said 2024 marked the fourth time since 2019 both schools received As. Scores were not given for 2020 and 2021.
“We focus on the education environment as a whole, so that is structure, discipline and curriculum,” Vinson said. “We use the state testing data to tell us where kids are and how we’re performing as a district. And we use that data to have internal discussions as to where we need to improve.”
Vinson said neither Warner school received lower than a B since 2013.
“It’s just that constant high expectation and constant focus on improvement has led to the success we’ve seen,” Vinson said.
Forbidding cellphones in school for the past 13 years also has helped, he said.
Charemon Jenkins taught eighth grade math and algebra at Warner for eight years.
“I don’t want to say I teach to the test, but I teach the standards we are going to be tested on,” Jenkins said. “We teach bell to bell, so I make sure I plan my class period from the beginning to the end.
Seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher Shiloh Wiedel said she seeks to show students she cares about their future.
“Once you get that caregiving role towards them, showing them you’re there for them, I feel they work to please you,” she said.
Other schools receiving overall A grades were Checotah’s Intermediate Elementary and Muskogee’s Sadler Arts Academy.
Three area high schools — Braggs, Okay and Porum — received overall F grades.
“I strongly believe we are not an F school,” Okay High Principal Mark Hayes said, adding that the school earned Cs and Ds in four categories, but got an F overall.
“All the students I taught in class, if they made three Bs and an A, they’re not going to end up with a C,” Hayes said. “We’re trying to figure out why that grade is what it is.”
The state report card website showed Okay High had 94.4% participation in statewide academic assessments, shy of the federally required 95% mark. Hayes said the percentage should have said 100%.
“That basically comes down to two students,” he said. “One is listed as not being in a full academic year and the other tested the previous year, so that’s kind of a duplicate entry.”
Hayes said he has called the Oklahoma Department of Education and is trying to get the figure fixed. He said Okay High has 110 students, and 33 juniors took the test.
“If we’d have had one more student pass in one area, we would not have gotten that F,” Hayes said. “If we’re weak in an area. I want to identify that and get stronger, at the same time, if we’re being misreported in that area, I want to get it fixed.”
Okay does use the state figures as benchmarks for improvement, Hayes said.
“We do pre-ACT test for our high school students toward the beginning of the year and end of the year,” he said. “We try to see where we have strengths and weaknesses.”
Porum High Principal Brandon Turley said the school is focused on student improvement “every day and every year.”
“Are they getting better every day, and are they advancing yearly,” he said. “If we’re doing that, then our teachers are doing a good job.”
Turley, who became principal last summer, said the school is “hitting the ACT hard … specifically focusing on math.”
“An attempt for any organization to apply a letter grade is — the word that pops in my head is asinine,” he said. “Are your kids graduating? Can a child read? Can they read comprehensively? Can they comprehend mathematics. A big one we think about is getting kids to think critically. If they can do those four things and be good people, they’re doing a good job.”