The day reports card come out at school is often rife with anxiety for students. Did I do as well as I think I did? In areas with room for improvement, did I succeed?
Students aren’t the only ones whose efforts are scrutinized. Public schools in Oklahoma are also under the microscope.
And several schools in Sequoyah County have areas in which they have plenty of room for improvement.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education’s Office of Educational Quality and Accountability has released school report cards for the 2023-24 school year.
Of the 27 area schools, 16 received overall grades of Cs and Ds.
Only Central High, Liberty Public School, Moffett Public School, Muldrow Elementary, Muldrow Middle School, Sallisaw High, and Gore’s elementary, upper elementary and high school recorded overall grades of B.
While there were some areas for several schools in which they scored As and Bs, there were also as many areas for many schools in which they received Ds and Fs.
Chronic absenteeism was a recurring concern for all but a handful of schools.
County schools receiving overall grades of D were Belfonte Public School, Brushy Public School, Gans High School, Marble City Pub-lic School, and Roland High School.
Schools with an overall grade of C, which is also the state average, were Central Elementary, Gans Elementary, Muldrow High School, Roland Elementary, Roland Middle School, Sallisaw Middle School, and Vian High School. Nearby Webbers Falls, in Muskogee County, received an overall grade of B for its elementary and D for its high school.
Schools were graded in as many as five categories, which resulted in the overall grade. The graded categories were:
• Academic achievement, which measured how prepared students were for the next grade, course or level
• Graduation (for high schools), which was a determination of how well the school supported students at graduating in four, five or six years
• Academic growth (for elementary and middle schools), which measured student growth compared to their performance the previous year
• English language proficiency progress, which grades whether English learners were meeting their languageacquisition targets
• Chronic absenteeism, which measures the percentage of students with good attendance
• Postsecondary opportunities, which is a determination of how well schools helped students gain early college and career exposure A closer look
Addressing the elephant in the classroom, almost a third of the 27 area schools received Ds or Fs for chronic absenteeism. Only six schools — all three from Roland and two from Muldrow — earned A’s in the same category. In short, students either don’t want to go to school, or schools are failing to properly motivate them to attend. Unfortunately, the statewide score for absenteeism is a D, so it is not a problem unique to Sequoyah County.
While the report card sheds light on how many schools must improve to meet their obligation to their students and the community, Muldrow appears to have found a successful formula. The two lower-grades campuses received A’s for chronic absenteeism. Muldrow schools earned more A’s and Bs than Cs.
Of particular note is that both Sallisaw Middle School and Sallisaw High School received an F for chronic absenteeism, and the high school also received an F for graduation. Gans was the only other county school to receive an F for graduation, while Central and Roland each scored a D for graduation. Of the eight county and area high schools, four — including Sallisaw — received Bs for postsecondary opportunities, while three received Cs. In grades for graduation, only Vian received a B, while three districts received Cs.
Along the same lines, Sallisaw Middle School was given a D for academic growth, and Belfonte, Brushy, Gans High, Marble City, Roland High, and Webbers Falls High all received Ds for academic achievement.
The most successful schools were Liberty Public School, Moffett Public School and two Muldrow schools. Moffett received A’s and Bs, and Muldrow Elementary and Muldrow Middle received A’s and Bs in all but one category.
Liberty Public School earned Bs across the board, while Gore Elementary and Vian Middle School received Bs in all but one category.
The schools where grades indicate the biggest need for improvement included Gans High School, which received Ds and Fs in all categories. Belfonte received Ds and a C, while Marble City received Cs and Ds. In addition, to major concerns with chronic absenteeism, exceptionally low grades for English language proficiency progress were registered by Gans High (0%), Webbers Falls Elementary (7%), Central Elementary (8%), Belfonte (9%) and Gans Elementary (10%).
Statewide, schools received Cs for academic achievement, academic growth, English language proficiency progress and postsecondary opportunities, and Ds for chronic absenteeism and graduation. Schools across the state earned a C as an overall grade.
By school
Analysis of grades for area high schools compared to the 2021-22 grades released in 2023 shows:
• Sallisaw improved overall from a C to B, but dropped in English language proficiency progress (from C to D) and postsecondary opportunities (B to C). Sallisaw received an F for graduation and chronic absenteeism, which were the same from the previous report cards.
• Central improved overall from a C to B, as well as in academic achievement (C to B) and chronic absenteeism (D to C). Postsecondary opportunities remained the same as before with a grade of C, while Central’s grade for graduation dropped from a B to a D.
• Muldrow received a C for graduation, postsecondary opportunities and English language proficiency progress, which was the same as previous reporting. Muldrow dropped a letter grade overall (from B to C), academic achievement (B to C) and chronic absenteeism (A to B).
• Roland registered one of the biggest turnarounds when it jumped from an F to an A for chronic absenteeism, and also improved in postsecondary opportunities (from C to B). Roland received a D overall and for academic achievement, the same as before, but dipped from a D to a C for graduation.
• Vian improved overall (from D to C), academic achievement (C to D) and chronic absenteeism (F to C), and remained the same as the previous report card for graduation (B) and postsecondary opportunities (C).
• Gore recorded improvement overall (from C to B), academic achievement (C to B), chronic absenteeism (F to C) and postsecondary opportunities (C to B), but dropped for graduation (B to C).
• Gans received the same grade of D for 2023-24 as it did for 2021-22 overall and for academic achievement, but dropped for chronic absenteeism (D to F), graduation (C to F) and postsecondary opportunities (C to D).
• Webbers Falls showed improvement in grades for graduation (from D to C) and chronic absenteeism (C to B), and remained the same as before with an overall grade of C and postsecondary opportunities grade of B. The high school dipped in academic achievement from C to D.
The biggest changes for middle schools were registered in chronic absenteeism, with Roland improving from F to A and Gore jumping from F to C, but Vian had the most dramatic drop from A to F.
For area elementary schools, chronic absenteeism grades improved for Roland (F to A), Gans (F to C), Marble City (F to C) and Webbers Falls (D to B). Central had a change in academic growth, improving from D to B.
