School officials mixed on report cards
Apr. 29—Area school officials say they're pleased with progress and achievements shown in state school report cards, released earlier this month by the State of Oklahoma.
However, officials also say the reports do not fully show how well their schools are doing. The report cards give letter grades and scores overall and in four categories — academic achievement and progress, English language proficiency and avoiding chronic absenteeism for the 2021-2022 school year.
"The state report card is only one metric or tool utilized to show how our schools are doing," said Muskogee School Superintendent Jarod Mendenhall. "When you go into our classrooms, you see quality teaching and learning occurring everyday. We have the Oklahoma state standards which are taught at each grade level and in every subject. Our staff works to ensure all standards are being taught in sequence so students don't fall behind."
Mendenhall said he sees progress in two areas. One is the straight A grades earned by Sadler Arts Academy.
Sadler Principal Ronia Davison said some people find value in such state reports.
"People like to know things are measured, and that we put as much time as we do in preparation," Davison said. "But there are others who know it's just one small measure of the academic picture of the students."
Mendenhall also noted progress at the 8th and 9th Grade Academy at Alice Robertson, which rose from an F to a C overall grade in 2022.
"Our site administrators and teachers have strived towards our goal for success through targeted strategies directly connected to sustaining academic growth and improvement," Mendenhall said. "To improve student life and academic learning, we put into place new site leadership and implemented a grade configuration that provided more targeted interventions to students in the ninth grade before moving to the high school."
Mendenhall said Muskogee High, along with Irving, Creek and Pershing Elementary Schools were only a few percentage points from higher grades.
Fort Gibson School Superintendent Scott Farmer doesn't take much stock in the report cards.
"There is no way in a large school system to boil down the performance to one letter grade," Farmer said. "We're proud of our local performance and we have local goals to meet every year, and we're meeting them, increasing ACT scores to up to two points above the state average."
Hilldale School Superintendent Erik Puckett said the district's academic scores were not horrible.
"But they're not where we want them," he said. "We've got to do better."
Puckett said Hilldale has teachers "work extremely hard."
"These test scores are not always indicative of the great job our teachers do," he said. "But we've got to do better on the tests. That is a one-day snapshot of what a kid is learning. It's a one-day test."
Hilldale has a graduation rate of more than 95 percent.
"And we've got students who are excelling on college and scoring high on the ACT," he said.
Three other area schools received As on their state report cards: Checotah Intermediate Elementary, Warner Elementary and Warner High.
Last September, the U.S. Department of Eduction listed Warner Elementary and Checotah Intermediate Elementary among 297 National Blue Ribbon Schools.
Checotah Intermediate Principal Ryan Ambrose said the A from the state was for a later school year, and with a higher overall score, than the National honor.
"We're building on to what we've already accomplished and trying to make it a nice system for ourselves," Ambrose said. "We're still doing all the individual student goals and everything we did to become a National Blue Ribbon School."
Warner School Superintendent David Vinson said a good sense of discipline and structure contributed to the high marks.
"We really do teach bell to bell," he said. "We don't waste any time within our school."
School Report Cards
School year 2021-2022
Overall test scores
Muskogee Public Schools
—Cherokee Elementary: D.
—Creek Elementary: C.
—Irving Elementary: D.
—Pershing Elementary: D.
—Tony Goetz Elementary: C.
—Sadler Arts Academy: A.
—6th and 7th Grade Academy: D.
—8th and 9th Grade Academy: C.
—Muskogee High School: D.
Fort Gibson Public Schools
—Intermediate Elementary: C.
—Middle School: B.
—High School: B.
Hilldale Public Schools
—Elementary: B.
—Middle School: C.
—High School: C.
Braggs Public Schools
—Elementary: C.
—High School: No Data available.
Haskell Public Schools
—Mary White Elementary: D.
—Middle School: D.
—High School: F.
Oktaha Public Schools
—Elementary: B.
—High School: D.
Porum Public Schools
—Elementary: C.
—High School: C.
Warner Public Schools
—Elementary: A.
—High School: A.
Webbers Falls Public Schools
—Elementary: C.
—High School: C.
Checotah Public Schools
—Intermediate: A.
—Middle School: C.
—High School: C.
Eufaula Public Schools
—Elementary: C.
—Middle School: C.
—High School: C.
Midway Public Schools
—Elementary: D.
—High School: D.
Okay Public Schools
—Elementary: B.
—High School: C
Porter Consolidated Schools
—Elementary: C.
—High School: D.
Wagoner Public Schools
—Teague: B.
—Central Intermediate: No data available.
—Middle School: C.
—High School: C.
