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A month has passed since Dewey Public Schools received their 2018-2019 report card scores from the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

Superintendent Vince Vincent said he believes all schools in the DPS District got the same score they received a year ago.

In terms of the DPS District, they are going to continue to pull from the data, take a look at it, and see the areas of improvement that they feel are necessary to make. A ton of data is involved with the State Report Cards and it is not easy to sift through.

Superintendent Vincent said they do what they can not to look at the letter grade the state provides, because it is more of a deep dive as to what the data suggests and what the district wants to achieve. Looking at the grades for each school, Dewey High received a D. Both Dewey Middle and Elementary Schools received a C. You can find a breakdown below.

According to Superintendent Vincent, the data over the years has suggested that they have work to do. He said they have work to do when it comes to standardized testing. This means bumping up their scores at the elementary and middle schools, and their ACT scores at the high school.

At the elementary and middle school level, about 80-percent of the State Report Card is based on standardized testing. Superintendent Vincent believes that is a bit heavy in terms of taking a test to determine how much of a quality education a child is getting. He said it is what is, however, and they have to work within the parameters they are given.

Then there is academic achievement and student growth. Superintendent Vincent said he believes they are making tremendous improvements in these aspects. He said this means students are making strides in their education and it shows from where they began. That is taken as a success in the DPS District because every student is starting at a particular point, and if they are moving them in the right direction, they are making an impact on their life.

The reason the district does what it can to not look at the letter grade is because it suggest things are more bleak than they really are. Superintendent Vincent said this may be because the Report Card system is still in its infancy stages in Oklahoma. He said it can also be because people have this idea of what a letter grade systems is based on when they were in school, but that that grading system is completely different than the grading system used for the State Report Cards; the traditional A-F grading system in schools does not carry the same connotation the A-F grading system for school districts in Oklahoma has.

Chronic absenteeism is a huge component to the State Report Card, and Superintendent Vincent said they cannot stress enough how important it is for kids to be in school while they do what they can at each school site to provide a stellar environment. He said the State Report Card does a good job of highlighting these types of issues so they can address it by bringing it to the public like they did last fall.

The DPS District believes it can always strive to provide more post-secondary opportunities to their students as well. Superintendent Vincent said they want to give high school seniors especially an avenue to start talking about "Year 5." He said they want to keep helping them figure out what they want to do after the final year of high school.

The DPS District continues to dig through the data and put numbers together. Superintendent Vincent said the data will be presented to the Dewey Board of Education in a meeting to be held sometime in 2020 once they gather everything that they need to gather to make a fair and honest self-assessment.

The State Report Card Results for Dewey in 2018-2019 can be found below. For a side-by-side comparison with other schools in our tri-county area of Nowata, Washington, and Osage Counties, click here to find the original report.

Dewey High School (Overall Grade: D):

Academic Achievement (D)

Graduation (C)

English Language Proficiency Progress (N/A)

Chronic Absenteeism (C)

Postsecondary Opportunities (C)

Dewey Middle School (Overall Grade: C):

Academic Achievement (D)

Academic Growth (C)

English Language Proficiency Progress (N/A)

Chronic Absenteeism (C)

Dewey Elementary School (Overall Grade: C):

Academic Achievement (C)

Academic Growth (C)

English Language Proficiency Progress (N/A)

Chronic Absenteeism (C)