From pre-kindergarten to college, Oklahoma's students are offered the best chance at success through an integrated, partnering network of public school districts, private and parochial schools, the Oklahoma Career and Technology system and our nationally recognized institutions of higher learning.

Oklahoma PK-12 Education Highlights

• Oklahoma ranks sixth in the nation for its quality of child-care centers, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. The rankings--released in a report late last week--come from a list of minimum standards used to gauge the quality of standards and oversight of child-care centers across the nation. Oklahoma, with 1,817 child-care centers serving 108,439 children, ranked third in the country for oversight, 22nd in the standards category, and 6th overall.
• Newsweek's 2008 list of the top 1,300 high schools in the United States ranks Oklahoma City's Classen School of Advanced Studies 41st and Tulsa's Booker T. Washington 66th.
  
• Education Week's tenth annual report card on state education systems ranked Oklahoma among the top 10 states in each of their four major reform categories.  More than 100 educational indicators are monitored by Education Week's researchers, who this year also analyzed state policy efforts over the past decade.  Oklahoma outperformed the national average on each of the "2006 Policy Implementation" indicators. (Jan. 2006)
  
• The Education Commission of the States website includes a massive database tracking each state's implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.  In July 2004, Oklahoma ranked No. 1 in the U.S. with more of the 40 major requirements met than any other state.  Since then, the ECS has revised their database tracking system but Oklahoma remains in the top five nationally. (Jan. 2006)
  
• Oklahoma is a national model for Pre-Kindergarten programs, according to reports from the National Institute for Early Education Research.  NIEER's most recent "State Yearbook" says Oklahoma is No. 1 in the percentage of four-year-olds attending public preschool programs, and is one of only two states offering voluntary access statewide. (March 2006)
  
  • Related New York Times story (requires subscription): Economix: Bridging Gaps Early On in Oklahoma (Feb. 7, 2007)
    
• "Technology Counts 2005," also from Education Week, provided its first state rankings of data on technology assets and use in public schools. Oklahoma's public schools rank 16th in the nation in access to technology. High rankings were also noted in the ratio of students to Internet-connected computers in classrooms, ranked 9th, and the percentage of schools with Internet access, ranked 7th. (May 2005)
  
• The Princeton Review, Inc., ranked Oklahoma 8th nationally in its "Testing the Testers:  2003 Annual Ranking of State Accountability Systems."  (May 2003)
  
• Oklahoma had the 9th highest number of National Board Certified teachers in the U.S. in 2005 -- according to the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards -- thanks to legislation and funding for incentives and support.  When the number of nationally certified teachers is figured as a percentage of all certified teachers, Oklahoma ranks 5th nationally. (Dec. 2005)
  
• The Manhattan Institute documented Oklahoma's graduation and college-readiness rates as higher than the national average in every category.  The state ranked 9th nationally for its 2002 graduation rate.  Oklahoma ranked 2nd among 32 states reporting data on African-American and 4th among 18 states providing Hispanic student data.  Their 2003 study included graduation rates for Native American students; Oklahoma ranked 1st.  (Feb. 2005)
  
• Oklahoma's average teacher salary for 2003-04 ranked the state 50th nationally while per-pupil expenditures ranked the state 49th in the U.S., according to "Rankings of the States 2004 and Estimates of School Statistics 2005." [June 2005; 50 states and the District of Columbia.]

Lifelong Learning Opportunities

• Oklahoma Public Libraries -- Oklahoma's 210 public libraries provide the best of both worlds-traditional library services and state-of-the-art information technologies. These places of discovery are buzzing with activity, circulating more than 20 million books, journals, movies, music CDs, and audio books to families every year. Meanwhile, citizens have access to millions of full-text magazine articles and other unique online resources thanks to a statewide library database available to all. Find an Oklahoma library near you!

Related Websites:

List of Oklahoma Colleges and Universities
List of Oklahoma CareerTech Campuses
GrowOklahoma.com Career Planning and Management