Walters: Our Schools Are Turning a Corner - OSDE Releases State Report Card Data

Oklahoma City, Okla – The Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) has released the state’s A-F public school report card on the Oklaschools.com website. The report card provides information on key metrics useful in evaluating school performance in the 2023-24 school year and prior years.

“OSDE is sending more resources than ever to help students who may be falling behind in literacy in and math,” said State Superintendent Ryan Walters. “This year’s data is the most comprehensive and most transparent in the history of the state with over 300 additional schools now receiving overall letter grades than did in 2022. Not only does this increase public transparency and accountability, it helps parents make informed choices about their child’s education and ensures our agency can direct resources to the schools that need it most.”

Walters continued, “We have instituted robust reforms of our accountability system, introduced incentive and bonus programs for teachers, and implemented the biggest teacher recruitment effort in the history of our state. This year’s state report card serves to inform the legislature and our agency of where the most help is needed, and we will continue to do everything possible to get Oklahoma students back to basics and back on track. Oklahoma schools are turning the corner toward sustained academic excellence.”

Even with the additional schools receiving a report card, there has been a decrease in the percentage of F schools and an increase in the number of A schools. This year, there are 15 net new A schools , and the overall percentage of F schools is down about 1%.

OSDE created the HEROES (Help Elevate Reading Outcomes for Every Student) Literacy Instructional Team to support districts, in accordance with the Strong Readers ACT, to help get young readers back on track and up to grade level.

115 schools participating in the HEROES program showed growth in ELA. The HEROES Team’s work with district represents OSDE’s commitment to providing support to schools and students in the continual improvement process with a focus on the basics of reading, the foundation for all learning.

The state report card compiles data for all (almost 700,000) students enrolled in public schools, including public charter schools, and evaluates how well the state as a whole and individual school sites perform relative to Oklahoma’s educational goals. In 2021, the Oklahoma legislature established that the report card would provide an A-F evaluation of school performance on certain performance indicators. Some of these are used to differentiate schools from one another to identify schools eligible for and needing supplemental support to improve their students’ outcomes. This is accomplished by providing schools with an overall A-F letter grade.