At more than 40% of all state expenditures, education takes the biggest chunk out of the state budget by far. It’s a topic that gets a lot of lip service, especially in election years. (Was there ever a candidate not for jobs and education?) But how much do we really know about the status of Oklahoma’s education system?

Oklahoma is one of 16 southern states making up the Southern Regional Education Board. The SREB compiles and analyzes data to help member states in deciding education policies. Their latest work is a 2006 report (pdf) on Oklahoma’s progress toward its Challenge to Lead program goals. Some tidbits from the Oklahoma report:

• Oklahoma’s public school enrollment increased by about 5 percent between 1992 and 2002.
• Oklahoma is projected to have a 2 percent decrease in enrollment by 2012.
• In 2003, the poverty rate among children in Oklahoma was higher than the national rate and the rate for SREB median states. It was also higher than Oklahoma’s rate in 2000.
• In 1990, 37 percent of students in Oklahoma were approved for free and reduced-price lunches. By 2004, the percentage had climbed 18 percentage points to 55 percent.
• Changes in high school graduating classes over the next 12 years in Oklahoma will parallel those in the nation. White students are expected to decline as a proportion of the class from 64 percent in 2006 to 50 percent in 2018. At the same time, black students will decline as a proportion from 10 percent to 8 percent. Hispanic students will grow as a proportion from 6 percent to 17 percent. Other minority groups will grow in proportion from 20 percent to 25 percent, including American Indian students, who will grow as a proportion of all graduates from 19 percent to 23 percent.
• Eighty-four percent of Oklahoma’s 4-year-old population was enrolled in publicly funded programs.
• Oklahoma’s suburban youth beat the nation in NAEP reading — but rural youth did not.
• Oklahoma’s high school graduation rate exceeded the national average.
• [Oklahoma's] graduation rate for all racial/ethnic and gender groups met or exceeded the national average except for white female students
• Oklahoma’s standard diploma requirements specify that all students must take two courses in fine arts.
• The GED pass rate for Oklahoma surpassed the national average
• Oklahoma’s college enrollment rate of recent high school graduates in 2002 was lower than the rates in the nation and in SREB states.
• The percentage of white adults with bachelor’s degrees in Oklahoma trailed the national and SREB percentages. Black adults with bachelor’s degrees equaled the national and SREB percentages. Hispanic adults with bachelor’s degrees equaled the national percentage and trailed the SREB percentage.
• [S]tandards for fourth-grade students in reading appear to have been lower than the NAEP Basic level in 2005.
• In 2005, Oklahoma had 122 schools identified as “in need of improvement” — 7 percent of the public elementary and secondary schools in the state.
• Training and supporting low-performing schools: Oklahoma is providing trained school support teams to deliver research-based training and work on specific issues with school leadership teams in low-performing schools.
• Oklahoma beat the nation and SREB states in the percentage of high school math teachers certified in mathematics, with 99 percent of teachers certified.
• The average salary for a beginning teacher in Oklahoma was lower than the averages in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas and higher than the averages in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri.
• In Oklahoma, the average salary for faculty at four-year colleges and universities was $10,770 less than the national average and $6,660 less than the SREB average in 2005.
• [T]he number of science and technology graduate degrees awarded increased.
• Too many eighth-graders in Oklahoma were not ready for high school.
• In Oklahoma, funding for public four-year colleges and universities increased by $152 million (22 percent) from 2001 to 2005. Funding per full-time-equivalent student at public four-year institutions in Oklahoma fell by $397 (4 percent), adjusted for inflation, over the period.
• In Oklahoma, funding for public two-year colleges increased by $39 million (17 percent) from
• 2001 to 2005. Funding per full-time-equivalent student at these colleges in Oklahoma decreased by $1,330 (19 percent), adjusted for inflation, over the period.

Plenty of room for improvement, but not too bad for a bunch of poor, hungry Okies.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 9:33 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.