Just before the end of 2024, School Report Cards, including one on Newcastle Public Schools, were released by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. The following represents how NPS scored when compared to all other school districts in the state.
Newcastle was ahead of the state averages in the categories of Academic Achievement, Academic Growth, Attendance, post-secondary opportunities, graduation, assessment performance, and English Language Proficiency.
Newcastle Schools was behind in the category indicating how well English learners are meeting their language acquisition targets.
Newcastle scored higher than the state average when looking at Academic Achievement, or how well students are prepared for the next grade, course or level. Newcastle had a 52% rating while the state average was 49%. Newcastle also scored higher in Academic Growth, with 58% compared to a 53% state average.
For the category of Postsecondary Opportunities, Newcastle had 69% rating while the state average was 51%. For the category of Graduation, the District Report Cards compared schools to see how well Districts were supporting students at graduating in four, five and six years. Newcastle had 91% at four years, 92% at five years, and 95% at six years. The state averages were 81% at four years, 83% at five years, and 84% at six years.
In the Attendance category, Newcastle had 86.35% while the state average was 78.1%. When looking at Chronic Absenteeism, which looks at the percentage of students who are in good attendance, Newcastle scored 89.42% and the state average was 80.79%.
The School Report Cards also report on Per Pupil Expenditures and a category labeled “Teacher Student,” which measures percentage of instruction provided to students by educator type, percentage of students who graduated in four, five or six years, and percentage of graduates who went on to enroll in a postsecondary institute in the state. The report shows that information was unavailable on all these categories.
When looking at reports on individual sites within Newcastle Public Schools, the following letter grades were part of the School Report Cards.
Newcastle High School Grades 9-12 Academic Achievement - D Graduation - B English Language Proficiency Progress - D Chronic Absenteeism - C Post Secondary Opportunities - A Overall - C (On the 2022-2023 School Report Card, NHS had an Overall grade of B.)
Newcastle Middle School Grades 6-8 Academic Achievement - C Academic Growth - C English Language Proficiency Progress - B Chronic Absenteeism - C Overall - C (On the 2022-2023 School Report Card, NMS had an Overall grade of C.)
Newcastle Elementary School Grades 2-5 Academic Achievement - C Academic Growth - B English Language Proficiency Progress - D Chronic Absenteeism - B Overall - C (On the 2022-2023 School Report Card, NES had an Overall grade of C.)
Newcastle Early Childhood Center Grades PK-1
Academic Achievement - C Academic Growth - B English Language Proficiency Progress - B Chronic Absenteeism - C Overall - C (On the 2022-2023 School Report Card, NECC did not have a grade due to lack of data.)
About the Oklahoma School Report Cards
The State Department of Education says school report cards are a valuable tool for identifying opportunities to enhance educational quality and improve student outcomes. They state that by analyzing the metrics within a report card, educators and community members can engage in data-informed discussions to drive continuous improvement.
The OSDE says regardless of a school’s overall grade, essential questions to consider include:
• Are there specific areas where changes could measurably improve student outcomes? Who should be involved in designing an improvement plan?
• What targeted actions can be implemented to achieve better results?
• If the plan succeeds, what measurable improvements should we anticipate?
• After implementing the plan through several cycles, how have the metrics evolved? If progress is evident, that’s a success. If not, adjustments can be made based on these insights.
