Several schools in Sequoyah County have areas in which they have plenty of room for improvement.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education’s Office of Educational Quality and Accountability has released school report cards for the 2024-25 school year.
Central High, Roland High, Roland Elementary, Belfonte Elementary and Marble City Elementary saw overall improvement over last year’s grading. Unfortunately, Sallisaw High, Gore High, Muldrow Elementary, Gore Elementary and Moffett Elementary received worse overall grades than a year ago. The remaining 17 schools in the county received the same grade as last year.
Of the 27 area schools, 21 received overall grades of Cs and Ds, up from 16 a year ago.
Only Central High, Liberty Public School, Muldrow Middle School, Gore Upper Elementary, Vian Middle School and Roland Elementary recorded overall grades of B.
While there were some areas for several schools in which they scored A’s (seven categories) and B’s (33 categories), there were also as many areas for many schools in which they received Ds and Fs.
Chronic absenteeism, especially at high schools and middle schools, was a recurring concern for most of the schools. This is the final year chronic absenteeism will be a core component of the state report cards, since state lawmakers decided schools shouldn’t be penalized for students’ poor attendance, a factor they said is outside of the school’s control.
Gans High School is the only county school to receive an overall grade of D. A year ago, four schools scored D.
Schools with an overall grade of C were Sallisaw, Muldrow, Roland, Vian, Gore and Webbers Falls high schools; Sallisaw and Roland middle schools; and Eastside, Liberty (Sallisaw), Muldrow, Central, Vian, Gore, Gans, Belfonte, Brushy, Marble City, Moffett and Webbers Falls elementary schools.
Schools were graded in as many as five categories, which resulted in the overall grade. The graded categories were:
• Academic achievement, which measured how prepared students were for the next grade, course or level
• Graduation (for high schools), which was a determination of how well the school supported students at graduating in four, five or six years
• Academic growth (for elementary and middle schools), which measured student growth compared to their performance the previous year
• English language proficiency progress, which grades whether English learners were meeting their language-acquisition targets
• Chronic absenteeism, which measures the percentage of students with good attendance • Postsecondary opportunities (for high schools), which is a determination of how well schools helped students gain early college and career exposure Closer look Addressing the elephant in the classroom, almost a quarter of the 27 area schools received D’s or F’s for chronic absenteeism, which is a marked improvement from a year ago when a third of the schools received the worst grades.
Gore High, Muldrow Middle and Elementary earned A’s in the same category, While the report card sheds light on how many schools must improve, Gore Middle School, Roland Elementary and Liberty Public School may be on to something, with the three schools receiving more A’s and B’s than C’s.
Both Sallisaw’s Middle and High School received an F for chronic absenteeism, and the high school received an F for graduation, the same as last year.
Gans and Gore were the only other county schools to receive an F for graduation, while Central scored a D.
Roland and Webbers Falls received A’s for postsecondary opportunities, while Sallisaw earned a B. Central, Muldrow and Vian received C’s, and-Gans and Gore received D’s.
The most successful were Liberty Public School and Muldrow Middle School. Both received more A’s and B’s than C’s,.
The schools where grades indicate the biggest need for improvement are Gans and Sallisaw high schools. Gans received three D’s and two F’s, while Sallisaw received two F’s.
High Schools
• Sallisaw dipped overall from a B to C, along with a similar drop in academic achievement. Sallisaw improved from a C to B in English language proficiency progress and held stable with a B in postsecondary opportunities. But the high school again received an F for graduation and chronic absenteeism, the same since 2017-18, except for a D in absenteeism in 2018-19.
• Central registered overall improvement, climbing from a C to B, as well as for chronic absenteeism. The school stayed the same year over year with a B for academic achievement, C for postsecondary opportunities and D for graduation.
• Muldrow was the only high school to record B’s and C’s in all categories, earning B’s for graduation, chronic absenteeism and English language proficiency progress, and C’s for academic achievement, postsecondary opportunities and overall.
• Roland improved from B to A for postsecondary opportunities and from D to C for graduation, but remained the same with a D for academic achievement. Roland went from an A to C for chronic absenteeism, and from C to F for English language proficiency progress.
• Vian remained the same as last year with C’s for overall and postsecondary opportunities, and improving from C to B for academic achievement. But the school slipped from B to C for graduation, and then slid two letter grades from C to F for chronic absenteeism.
• Gore slipped from B to C overall, impacted by drops of at least two letter grades for postsecondary opportunities (from B to D) and graduation (from B to F). The school earned a B for academic achievement, and jumped from C to A for chronic absenteeism.
• Webbers Falls remained the same as last year with an overall grade of C and holding steady with a D for academic achievement. Improvements were registered for postsecondary opportunities (B to A) and graduation (C to B), but wentfrom B to C for chronic absenteeism and receiving an F for English language proficiency progress, the first year the high school earned a grade in this category.
• Gans received the county’s worst grades. The only improvement was in English language proficiency progress (from F to D), while the school remained the same as a year ago with D’s in academic achievement and postsecondary opportunities, and F’s in graduation and chronic absenteeism.
Miiddle Schools
• Sallisaw improved from D to C for academic growth, but slipped from C to D for academic achievement. The school remained stable with an A for English language proficiency progress, C overall and an F for chronic absenteeism.
• Muldrow dipped from B to C for academic achievement, but remained the same with A’s for English language proficiency progress and chronic absenteeism, B overall and C for academic growth.
• Roland dropped from A to C for chronic absenteeism, but had an overall grade of C, as well as C’s for academic achievement and academic growth.
• Vian improved from F to C for chronic absenteeism, but dipped from B to C for academic achievement. The school remained stable with B’s for academic growth and overall.
• Gore received B’s across the board for academic achievement, academic growth and overall, and the school improved from C to B for absenteeism.
Elementary Schools • Eastside received a C for academic growth and overall,, but dipped from B to C for academic achievement and English language proficiency progress. The school improved from F to D for chronic absenteeism.
• Sallisaw’s Liberty remained stable with C’s for academic growth and overall, but slipped from B to C for academic achievement and B to D for English language proficiency progress. The school improved from D to C for chronic absenteeism.
• Muldrow slid from B to C for academic growth and overall, but remained the same with C’s for academic achievement and English language proficiency progress. The school duplicated its grade of A for chronic absenteeism.
• Central School maintained an overall grade of C as well as a B for academic growth, but slipped from C to D for academic achievement. The school improved in chronic absenteeism from C to B and from D to C for English language proficiency progress.
• Roland received four B’s — improving from C a year ago for academic growth and overall, as well as receiving a grade for the first time in English language proficiency progress. They slipped from an A for chronic absenteeism but equaled its letter grade from last year with a C for academic achievement.
• Vian garnered B’s for chronic absenteeism and academic growth (an improvement from last year’s C), and duplicated their C’s for academic achievement and overall.
• Gore remained steady with a B for academic achievement, and jumped from F to C for chronic absenteeism. But the school dipped from B to C for academic growth and overall.
• Gans remained generally on par from last year with C’s for academic achievement and overall, with a dip from B to C for academic growth.
•WebbersFallsreceived C’s across the board. There was improvement from B to C for academic achievement and from D to C for English language proficiency progress. The school’s grade for chronic absenteeism dipped from B to C.
