Oklahoma Education Rankings: An In-Depth Analysis
For many families, finding the best public school for their children is a top priority. Across the United States, approximately 51 million students attend public schools, which, despite their imperfections, play a crucial role in their communities by improving the welfare of children and welcoming all, regardless of income level, disability, or previous academic performance. Many public schools also provide school meals, ensuring that children from food-insecure families receive nutritious food daily. However, the quality of public education varies significantly from state to state. This article delves into the state of public education in Oklahoma, its ranking, and the factors contributing to its current standing.
Oklahoma's Overall Ranking
Recent surveys have painted a concerning picture of Oklahoma's public education system. A survey ranks Oklahoma as the 50th worst state for its school systems. According to WalletHub’s latest study, Oklahoma ranks 50th nationwide, outpacing only New Mexico for the worst school systems. The study included Washington, D.C., resulting in 51 locations ranked.
Out of a total of 100 points - 80 points for quality education and 20 for school safety - Oklahoma scored a total of 32.62 points. While the state’s safety rank places it at 34th safest nationwide, the quality of education tells a vastly different story.
Key Metrics and Scores
WalletHub ranked each state’s public schools for “Quality” and “Safety” using 33 relevant metrics. Metrics included high school graduation rate among low-income students, math and reading scores, median SAT and ACT scores, pupil-teach ratio, the share of armed students, the number of school shootings between 2000 and June 2020, bullying incidence rate, and more.
Oklahoma’s quality education score ranks the Sooner State 50th out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., as evaluated by WalletHub. The survey consistently placed Oklahoma in the bottom 10 states for numerous categories, including:
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- Median ACT Score (49)
- Reading Test Scores (48)
- Dropout Rate (46)
- Median SAT Score (45)
- Math Test Scores (44)
- Pupil-Teacher Ratio (39)
The categories were scored based on 32 relevant metrics for each section. The state’s worst category, median ACT score, was broken down by ACT last October. Although Oklahoma scored 49 out of 51 on the ACT, it tied for third place alongside Arizona and Nevada, making it one of the lowest-scoring states. In 2024, the average ACT score of nearly 50,000 Oklahoma high school graduates who took the test was 17.6, lower than the national average of 19.4.
Across each section, the average scores were as follows:
- English: 16.8
- Math: 17
- Reading: 18.2
- Science: 17.9
All of these averages are below the benchmark. The percentage of Oklahoma students taking the ACT meeting college-readiness benchmarks:
- Meeting English benchmark of 18: 40%
- Meeting Reading benchmark of 22: 29%
- Meeting Math benchmark of 22: 15%
- Meeting Science benchmark of 23: 17%
Factors Contributing to Low Rankings
WalletHub said the study is meant to dive into how funding public schools is often an indicator of the school system's success. “The quality of public school systems varies widely from state to state, though, and is often a question of funding. Public elementary and secondary education money usually flows from three sources: the federal, state and local governments,” the article reads.
Chip Lupo, WalletHub analyst, said while having money and allocating properly is a “big role” in how good a system will be, it’s not the entire pie. “How funds are applied also plays a big role in how good a school system is, as does the quality of educators, other professionals and the curriculum. In addition, schools need to focus not just on test scores but also on making sure that students feel safe, comfortable and cared for,” Lupo said.
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Funding vs. Outcomes: A Closer Look
Much of the funding of public schools has been called into question by Superintendent Ryan Walters. A recent report released by WalletHub, a personal finance company, ranked Oklahoma’s public-school system 50th nationwide out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. While that ranking was based on 32 metrics that included more than academic outcomes, the report’s findings are generally in line with the results of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests administered in Oklahoma and nationwide in 2024.
Oklahoma’s composite score on the NAEP fourth-grade reading test was significantly better than only two states nationwide, while in 8th grade reading Oklahoma did not outrank any state.
The WalletHub report prompted both partisan attacks and calls for increased spending. For example, the Oklahoma Senate Democrats Campaign Committee tweeted, “A Republican-led Oklahoma is bad for education,” and called for “increased public education funding.”
However, Oklahoma’s poor ranking follows several years of dramatic increases in public-school funding. And several experts cited in the WalletHub report explicitly warn that there’s little reason to expect outcomes to improve if officials increase spending without making other changes.
The WalletHub report included a section in which six experts from across the nation were asked, “Does variation in per-pupil spending explain most of the variation in school quality?”
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Ashlyn Aiko Nelson, adjunct associate professor in the School of Education at Indiana University, provided a blunt response: “No; in fact, variation in per-pupil spending explains very little variation in school quality.”
Paul Bruno, assistant professor of education policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, expressed a similar viewpoint, saying that “per-pupil spending won’t tell you very much about how effective a school is.”
Jill Channing, associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at East Tennessee State University, noted that “there are states that invest heavily in education but do not consistently rank among the best-performing, which suggests that governance structures, community engagement, and policy coherence also play substantial roles.”
Channing said spending increases “must be allocated strategically to make a meaningful difference.” Rosemary Salomone, professor of law at St. John’s University, told WalletHub that additional funding will improve outcomes “only if those funds are well spent and targeted toward the indicators that directly impact performance.”
The Increase in Funding and Lack of Improvement
Since 2018, Oklahoma public-school funding has exploded. According to financial data reported by schools to the state’s Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS), new revenue in Oklahoma public schools reached $9,600,703,488 in the 2023-2024 school year. Since student enrollment was 698,923 that year, that comes out to an average of $13,736 per pupil.
That means per-pupil revenue has increased by an astounding 51-percent since the 2017-2018 school year when Oklahoma public schools reported having $6,300,400,107 in new revenue and statewide enrollment of 694,816 for an average of $9,067 per student. The average per-pupil revenue in Oklahoma is now significantly more than the average private-school tuition in Oklahoma, according to figures compiled by Private School Review.
Despite the dramatic increase in funding for Oklahoma schools since 2018, academic results have not improved. In fact, they have gotten worse. The average ACT composite score in Oklahoma schools was significantly lower in 2024 than in 2018.
Researchers say 10 points on a state’s NAEP scale score roughly equates to a year of learning. Oklahoma’s fourth-grade reading NAEP score has declined nine points since 2019.
Other reviews of Oklahoma school funding have also highlighted the strong growth in public-school revenue-and the lack of associated improvement in academic outcomes. When officials with Edunomics Lab analyzed data from 2013 to 2024, tracking NAEP 4th grade reading and 8th grade math scores alongside per-pupil spending, they found that Oklahoma’s per-pupil spending increased 47 percent during that decade, but NAEP scores in both reading and math are far lower today than in 2013. Oklahoma’s spending increase far outpaced inflation during that time.
In a report released in April, the National Education Association (NEA) similarly found that Oklahoma had $13,028 in revenue receipts per student, based on fall enrollment from the 2023-2024 school year, and $14,066 in revenue receipts per student when calculated based on average daily attendance.
The data in the NEA report bolsters Channing’s observation that some states are producing subpar academic outcomes despite outspending many other states. For example, in the WalletHub review only one state ranked worse than Oklahoma in the report’s “quality” ranking: New Mexico. But New Mexico has per-pupil revenue of $18,075, according to the NEA, which outranks 20 states, including Oklahoma.
In contrast, while the NEA report ranked Mississippi 40th in per-pupil revenue, only six states scored higher than Mississippi on NAEP’s most recent round of fourth-grade reading tests.
States with Top-Ranked Public Schools
To provide a broader context, it is helpful to examine states with top-ranked public school systems. These states often serve as benchmarks for others striving to improve their educational outcomes.
- Massachusetts: 48.8% of Massachusetts’s eligible schools ranked in the top 25% of high school rankings, a total of 167 schools. and the second-highest median ACT score of 25.1. Massachusetts also has one of the lowest bullying incidence rates in the country and is considered one of the best states for teachers.
- Connecticut: Connecticut ranks second in the nation for public schools, ranking second for quality and 19th for safety. Connecticut students have the highest median ACT score of 25.5 and have the third-highest reading test scores. Connecticut spends about $18,958 per student, one of the highest per-pupil costs in the country.
- New Jersey: New Jersey has the third-best public schools in the United States. New Jersey has the second-lowest dropout rate among states and the third-lowest pupil-to-teacher ratio. Additionally, students have the third-highest math test scores and the second-highest reading test scores in the nation. New Jersey ranks second for the overall quality of schools and 11th for safety. The state spends about $21,866 per student on average.
- Virginia: Virginia has the fourth-best public schools overall in the United States, ranking fourth for quality and third for safety. Virginia public schools were found to have the fourth-highest math test scores in the country.
- New Hampshire: New Hampshire has the fifth-best public schools in the United States, ranking fourth for quality and twelfth for safety. New Hampshire schools have the fourth-highest reading test scores among states and the second-highest median ACT score of 25.1.
- Maryland: The sixth-best state for public schools is Maryland. Maryland’s average ACT score is 22.3, and its average SAT score is 1058.
- Delaware: Ranking seventh for public schools is Delaware, which ranks sixteenth for quality and third for safety. Delaware has the second-lowest bullying incident rate, only second to D.C.
- Nebraska: At the eighth spot for states with the best public schools is Nebraska. The state ranks sixth for quality, tying with Minnesota for the highest median SAT score.
- Vermont: Vermont has the fifth-best public schools in the nation. Vermont ranks eighth for quality, having the lowest pupil-to-teacher ratio in the country, allowing teachers to give each student extra attention. is 16-to-1, while Vermont’s is 10.5-to-1.
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