Oklahoma's School Report Cards

At the core of the Oklahoma School Report Cards is the belief that all students can grow and all schools can improve. While no student report card tells the whole story of a child, no school report card tells the entire story of a school. Education is far more than a single score or letter grade. Still, families and communities must have information providing insight into their local schools' strengths and areas needing improvement to make informed choices about the education they seek for their students and exercise appropriate oversight of their local schools. The Public School Report Card aims to provide a rich resource of such information. 

Oklahoma law codifies the framework for its school accountability system (see §70-1210.545, pp. 1237ff.) in compliance with section 1111 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA).

Oklahoma statute 70-1210.545 requires schools to be evaluated on multiple measures and be assigned a letter grade similar to those assigned to students. The law defines A - F letter grades to mean:

• "A" means schools making excellent progress;
• "B" means schools making above average progress;
• "C" means schools making satisfactory progress;
• "D" means schools making less than satisfactory progress; and,
• "F" means schools failing to make adequate progress.

Oklahoma's school report cards measure school performance based on how well students perform across multiple indicators, including academic achievement, academic growth, chronic absenteeism, progress toward English language proficiency among students for whom English is not spoken in the home, engagement in postsecondary opportunities, and high school graduation rates. Measured at different points, indicators work together to provide a snapshot of school performance. Each indicator receives a specific point value that translates to a letter grade for the indicator. Indicator grades are weighted to calculate an overall school letter grade.

In addition to accountability-specific (i.e., graded) indicators, contextual information, including per-pupil expenditures, educator qualifications, and comparison to NAEP (the national school report card that compares education across states), is also displayed. This information lets users understand a school's successes and challenges from several perspectives.

The first page users will see when navigating OklaSchools.com includes a search bar, a state map that allows them to locate schools geographically, and a link to the overall state report card. 

The search bar has two tabs:

1. Search by school or district name—This is the default search. Enter the school or district name, and a drop-down list will begin to populate, allowing users to select the school or district of interest.
2. Search schools near you—Selecting this tab allows users to enter an address of interest. Selecting the address from the drop-down menu will return a map showing public and non-public schools within a several-mile radius. A filter link above the school list allows one to set the search radius. 

The default Oklahoma map displays counties. Users may select a county; the map will zoom to the county of interest and display a list of schools in the county. The number of schools and enrolled students is displayed at the top of the list. Selecting a school from the list will take the user to the school's report card.

Clicking the text "Find Schools By County" reveals a drop-down menu to display other aggregations. These include various political jurisdictions, ranging from congressional districts and tribal nations to school districts. Selecting one of these will refresh the map to display the geographical boundaries of the chosen jurisdiction and a list of the schools within it. 

The orange "View Oklahoma State Report Card" takes one to the state report card. The information there displays aggregated data for all schools in the state.

School report cards display data in three sections.

1. General Information—The top-most section displays general information for the school during the reporting year. Previous reporting years may be selected by clicking the Year selector above the school's name. This allows users to investigate the school's performance in previous years. 
2. Indicators—The graded categories, such as Academic Achievement, Chronic Absenteeism, English Language Progress, etc., are displayed on cards that compare the school's performance to the state average. The More Details link on each card allows users to drill down into the data underlying the information displayed on the card.  
3. Contextual Data—Data displayed on cards in the Contextual data section provide additional perspectives on school performance, such as the percentage of instruction taught by experienced teachers and per-pupil expenditure. Others, such as Assessment Performance, Student Progress, Attendance, and ELPA Progress, provide data similar to that in graded indicators but include all students, not only those enrolled for the full academic year. 

Additional links at the bottom of the page provide shortcuts to lists of schools and districts, the state report cards, terms used in the accountability system, state policies, and a contact form. 

Navigate to the Oklahoma School Report Card Resources page for more detailed information on the report card indicators, calculation methods, and more. 

Datasets containing data for all schools in the state can be downloaded in CSV file format by clicking on the download icon found on many pages throughout the report card. These files provide school-level data.  Frequently, data sought are found in these files, so researchers are encouraged to start with these downloads. For example, researchers analyzing the number of students proficient in ELA or math in particular reported demographic groups for a sub-set of schools may find what they need by downloading the dataset accessible via the Academic Achievement card on the State Report Card.  

Researchers requiring data not found in these datasets may wish to file an Open Records Request.