Oklahoma’s public schools received their annual report cards last week, and the two numbers that matter most to families moved in opposite directions. Attendance improved. Graduation fell. The Oklahoma State Department of Education released the 2025-26 report cards on oklaschools.com, grading 1,750 public schools on an A to F scale across test scores, academic growth, absenteeism, graduation, college and career opportunities, and progress for students learning English. The results cover nearly 700,000 students statewide.
The split is the story. Statewide, 84.1 percent of students were not chronically absent, an improvement of 3 percentage points on the previous year. At the same time, the four-year high school graduation rate fell to 77.6 percent, down from 82.2 percent the year before. One number says more students are showing up. The other says fewer of them are leaving with a diploma counted in the official rate. Understanding why the two moved apart — and what each one actually measures — is the only way to read these report cards honestly.
The report card at a glance
Schools graded: 1,750 public schools, up from 1,724 last year. Fifteen schools received no grade because they lacked sufficient data.
Schools earning A, B or C: 64 percent. Twenty-four fewer schools earned a D than last year, and ten fewer earned an F.
Academic achievement: Only 27 percent of students scored at a proficient or advanced level on state reading, math and science tests. The statewide grade for academic achievement is a D, the same as the previous year.
Academic growth: A C. Students earned 56 percent of the possible points measuring year-over-year improvement in reading and math.
Attendance: Improved by 3 percentage points. In 2025-26, 84.1 percent of students were not chronically absent, just short of the state’s 85 percent benchmark for satisfactory progress. The grade for chronic absenteeism is a D.
Four-year graduation rate: 77.6 percent for the class of 2025, down from 82.2 percent for the class of 2024. The grade is a D.
Postsecondary opportunities: A B. More than half of 11th and 12th graders took part in early college or career experiences, a figure up 4.4 percentage points on last year.
English learners: A B. Of the 74,500 English learners who completed the full academic year, 34 percent met their language growth targets.
The good news first: more students in class
The attendance gain is the brightest number in the whole report. Statewide, 84 percent of students attended school regularly, meaning they missed fewer than three weeks of school during the year. The 3-percentage-point increase is a notable improvement in a year when the national picture has mostly been one of slow progress of less than a point a year.
The state department credits the work of individual schools. Dennis Williams, the department’s senior director of accountability and data, said the increase was mostly the result of efforts at individual schools, rather than any single statewide programme. Attendance improved school by school, through the daily work of schools that know their own students. Readers can find the full account of the report cards, including the department’s explanation of the attendance gain, in the Journal Record’s report: Oklahoma schools improve attendance but lose ground on graduation.
Attendance is the foundation the rest of the report card stands on. Students who miss a tenth of the school year miss a tenth of the teaching, and the loss compounds over time. A 3-point improvement is therefore not a small administrative win. Families who want to keep track of their own student’s attendance across the term can use the free attendance calculator for school to see where the numbers stand before a small problem becomes a pattern.
The hard number: graduation falls to 77.6 percent
If attendance is the good news, graduation is the hard number, and it needs careful reading. The four-year graduation rate fell from 82.2 percent for the class of 2024 to 77.6 percent for the class of 2025. A drop of 4.6 percentage points in a single year is large. The state department says that reading would be wrong — or at least mostly wrong.
Much of the decrease, the department explained, stems from a new federal requirement about which diplomas count. Under the federal calculation, students who graduate under Oklahoma’s CORE Curriculum requirements are excluded from the four-year graduation rate. The CORE Curriculum is the less demanding of the state’s two diploma paths, and students who complete it do earn a diploma. They simply do not count in the federal four-year rate any more. The state said the report cards also include a separate graduation measure that counts all students who earn diplomas, regardless of diploma type, so families can see the fuller picture alongside the federal figure.
That explanation changes what the 77.6 percent means, but it does not make the number unimportant. Even with the rule change, the reported rate is the number the federal system uses, and it is the number that shapes how Oklahoma’s schools are judged from outside the state. The department’s own grade for the four-year graduation rate is a D. And the rule change itself raises a question the report cards do not answer: how many students are now finishing on the CORE path, and whether that path leaves them ready for what comes after school.
The grades, subject by subject
The report cards grade the state as a whole on six indicators. Set out together, they show a system that is moving forward in some areas, standing still in others, and going backwards in one.
| Indicator | Grade | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Academic achievement | D | 27% proficient or advanced in reading, math and science |
| Academic growth | C | 56% of possible points for year-over-year improvement |
| Chronic absenteeism | D | 84.1% of students not chronically absent, short of the 85% benchmark |
| Four-year graduation rate | D | 77.6% for the class of 2025, down from 82.2% |
| Postsecondary opportunities | B | More than half of 11th and 12th graders in early college or career experiences |
| English learners | B | 34% of 74,500 English learners met growth targets |
Three D grades and one C against two B grades is a mixed report. The department said it expects to see gains in reading from recent investments in reading instruction and literacy coaches, and it pointed to the newly enacted Strong Readers Act, which will require children to repeat third grade if they do not meet reading standards — a requirement that begins in the 2027-28 school year.
The two B grades describe the part of schooling that comes after the classroom. Postsecondary opportunities earned a B on the strength of early college and career experiences: Advanced Placement courses, CareerTech programmes, internships and concurrent enrollment, in which high school students take college courses for credit. More than half of juniors and seniors took part, and participation rose 4.4 percentage points on last year.
Why attendance improved while its grade stayed a D
The most confusing line in the report cards is the attendance one: attendance improved by 3 percentage points, and the grade for chronic absenteeism is still a D. The explanation lies in how the grade is calculated, and in a law that is about to change the calculation entirely.
The chronic absenteeism grade measures the share of students who missed 10 percent or more of the school year, and it compares that share with the state’s benchmark of 85 percent of students avoiding chronic absence. Oklahoma reached 84.1 percent — better than last year, but still short of the benchmark, and therefore still a D. The grade does not reward improvement. It rewards reaching the line. A school system can improve every year and still earn a D until the year it crosses the benchmark, and that is what happened here.
There is a second layer. The Oklahoma Legislature passed a law last year, Senate Bill 711, to remove chronic absenteeism as a factor that counts against a school’s report card grade. Under the law, chronic absenteeism would shift from a 10-point accountability indicator to a bonus-point category that rewards schools for improving attendance. The Education Department is still waiting for final federal approval to make that change. If approval comes, the change would take effect beginning with the 2026-27 school year — meaning these 2026 report cards are the last ones in which attendance counts against schools in this way. Families reading their school’s report card should know that the D next to chronic absenteeism sits beside a 3-point improvement — and that next year, the same improvement would be counted differently.
What the report cards do not settle
Report cards answer some questions and open others, and Oklahoma’s 2026 edition opens several that will take more than one year to settle.
The first is the reading and math picture. Only 27 percent of students scored at a proficient or advanced level on state tests, and the achievement grade has now sat at a D for two consecutive years. The department’s answer is investment: reading instruction, literacy coaches, and the Strong Readers Act retention requirement from 2027-28. Whether that investment moves the grade will be visible in next year’s report cards.
The second is the graduation question. The federal rule change explains most of the drop, but the report cards do not say how many students graduate on the CORE Curriculum path, or how those students fare afterwards. Until that breakdown is published, families cannot tell how much of the 77.6 percent is a counting change and how much is a real change in how many students finish school.
The third is the attendance question. The 3-point improvement is the best attendance news Oklahoma has reported in years, but the report cards do not say which schools drove it, or which practices made the difference. The department attributes the gain to efforts at individual schools, which means the knowledge of what worked is scattered across 1,750 schools rather than written down in one place. For now, the honest summary is that attendance is moving in the right direction, achievement is not moving at all, and graduation is caught between a counting change and a real question about how many students finish.
What families can do with their school’s report card
A state report card is only useful if families can use it, and the Oklahoma report cards are built to be read school by school. The full results by district and school are available at oklaschools.com, and a family that looks up its own school will find the same six indicators, graded the same way, with the school’s own numbers behind each grade.
Start with attendance, because it is the number a family can influence most directly. A student who misses 10 percent of the school year is chronically absent by the state’s definition, and the arithmetic of that threshold is unforgiving: in a typical 180-day school year, 18 days missed is the line. Families can work out exactly where a student stands with the attendance calculator and the guide to how to calculate average attendance of students, and they can use the absenteeism rate guide to understand what the school’s own figures mean. The point is to spot a pattern early, while a few missed days can still be recovered.
Then look at the grades in the round, not one at a time. A school with a B for postsecondary opportunities and a D for achievement is telling families something specific: it is good at opening doors for older students, and it is struggling to build the reading and math skills that make those doors worth walking through. A school with a C for growth and a D for achievement is improving, but from a low base.
Finally, ask the school what it is doing about the weakest grade. The report cards are a starting point for a conversation, not a verdict. A school that can describe its plan for reading, or for attendance, or for keeping students on track to graduate, is a school that has read its own report card.
Frequently asked questions
How much did attendance improve in Oklahoma schools in 2025-26?
Overall student attendance improved by 3 percentage points. In 2025-26, 84.1 percent of students were not chronically absent, meaning they missed less than 10 percent of the school year. The state fell just short of its 85 percent benchmark, so the grade remains a D.
Why did Oklahoma’s graduation rate fall to 77.6 percent?
The four-year graduation rate fell from 82.2 percent for the class of 2024 to 77.6 percent for the class of 2025. The state department said much of the decrease results from a new federal requirement that students earning a CORE Curriculum diploma not be counted in the graduation rate. The report cards also include a separate measure counting all students who earn diplomas, regardless of diploma type.
What grades did Oklahoma earn on the 2026 school report cards?
The statewide grades were D for academic achievement, C for academic growth, D for chronic absenteeism, D for the four-year graduation rate, B for postsecondary opportunities and B for English learners.
What is chronic absenteeism, and how does Oklahoma measure it?
A student is chronically absent when they miss 10 percent or more of the school year for any reason. In 2025-26, 84.1 percent of Oklahoma students avoided chronic absence. The state’s benchmark for satisfactory progress is 85 percent.
Will chronic absenteeism still count against Oklahoma schools next year?
Not in the same way. Under Senate Bill 711, passed in 2024, chronic absenteeism will shift from a 10-point accountability indicator to a bonus-point category rewarding schools that improve attendance. The change is waiting for final federal approval and would take effect from the 2026-27 school year.
What happens next
Oklahoma’s 2026 report cards leave the state’s schools in an unusual position: measurably better at getting students into classrooms, and measurably worse, on the official measure, at graduating them. The two facts point in different directions, and the next year of data will show which one is the trend and which one is the exception.
Three things will decide that. The first is whether the attendance gain holds. The second is whether the reading investments move the achievement grade off its D. The third is the federal approval for Senate Bill 711, which will decide whether attendance is judged against a benchmark or rewarded for improvement from next year onwards.
Families do not have to wait for any of those answers to act. Keeping track of one student’s attendance across the term, and catching a pattern before it hardens, is the most practical step any family can take — and the free attendance percentage calculator is the simplest way to do it.
