The top reported proficiency rate is 78% in Math. The lowest is 77% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cleora
Cleora Public Schools serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in a rural corner of Delaware County, Oklahoma. Because it does not offer high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and families in this district must plan for where their children will attend ninth grade, as Cleora’s responsibility ends with eighth grade. That transitional structure is the central fact about this district: it is a self-contained elementary and middle school experience, after which students move on.
The student body is small and distinctive in its makeup. Slightly fewer than two hundred students attend across all grades, and the classrooms are intimate in scale, with single-digit or low-teen counts in many grade levels. The largest cohort is first grade; the smallest is fifth grade, reflecting the natural flow of a rural district. Racially, the student population is nearly evenly split between students who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native and those who identify as White, with a small Hispanic presence and very small numbers from other backgrounds. This dual-heritage profile is uncommon. The district had no recent breakdown for the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, so a measure of economic need is not available from the source data, though a parent may want to ask the district directly about that.
On state assessments, the results that are reportable tell an uneven story. Several grade-level results in math and English language arts were suppressed by the state, which can happen when testing groups are too small to report publicly. For the grades where results are available, they range broadly. In fourth-grade math, a substantial majority of students scored proficient or above, and in fifth-grade math the share was similar. Seventh-grade math posted a very high proficiency rate. In seventh-grade English language arts, proficiency was also high. For fourth, fifth, and sixth grade ELA, and for third and sixth grade math, the results were suppressed, so no public picture exists for those grades. Science scores for fifth and eighth grade were both suppressed. The upshot is that the available data shows strong performance in the upper elementary and middle school grades that are reported, but a parent cannot see a full profile of every grade from the public record.
When placed among the other districts in Delaware County, Cleora stands apart on the measures that are available. Its overall proficiency index, which averages the reportable test results across tested subjects and grades, lands in the top quarter of the county’s districts. Its chronic absenteeism rate is notably low and also sits in the top quartile, meaning that the vast majority of students are in school regularly, a strength that tends to correlate with the kind of tight-knit setting a small rural district can offer. Current per-pupil spending is in the upper range among the county’s districts, which is consistent with the economics of running a small district: fixed costs are spread over a thin enrollment base.
The housing market in the Cleora area reflects a broader pattern of rural Oklahoma. Home values in the district’s zip code are above both the state median and the national median, which is noteworthy for a non-metropolitan area. Affordability relative to national income benchmarks is moderately stretched. No rental market data was available in the source material, so a reader comparing rent versus buy would need local research.
The district’s public-record and web-research review turned up no parent-relevant changes or recent initiatives that met the bar for lasting impact. This is what you would expect from a very small, stable district that is not undergoing facility renovations, boundary changes, or program overhauls. Families who choose Cleora are choosing a low-profile, small-school setting where their child will be well known through the middle grades, and they must secure a high school pathway afterward. The academic picture that is reportable is encouraging, especially in math, but gaps in the public test data mean a full portrait is not available for every grade level.
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