What does “50th in education” mean to Oklahoma?

It is odd being 50th in education again when such rankings are so often just clickbait. Few groups ranked states when Governor Bellmon signed the Education Reform and Funding Act of 1990 (House Bill 1017) into law. In those days, Oklahoma students were scoring at about the national average on standardized state tests, our high-school graduation rate ranked 36th, and our ACT average composite was just 0.6 points below the average of all states and the District of Columbia. Yet, in 2024, Oklahoma’s ACT average ranked second-to-last nationally.

That’s not even the worst of the worsening. Consistent measures of college attendance by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education does not extend (online) to 1990; but, in Fall 2010, more than half of high school graduates went on to higher education. From the Class of 2023, barely one-third enrolled in college that fall. There were 11.5% more high school graduates in 2023 than in 2010, but 27.4% fewer of them went directly to an Oklahoma college. This is a serious problem. … Read the rest here.