The top reported proficiency rate is 45% in Science. The lowest is 26% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Valliant
Valliant is a public school district in southeastern Oklahoma serving students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The district enrolls roughly a mid-sized student body for a rural Oklahoma district, drawing from the town of Valliant and the surrounding parts of McCurtain County. The student population is predominantly white, with a substantial share of students who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, a smaller but noticeable group of students who identify with two or more races, and modest numbers of Black, Hispanic, and Asian students. This composition gives the district a notably diverse racial and ethnic mix compared to many rural Oklahoma districts, though it is a characteristic to note rather than evaluate.
Academically, the picture is mixed and requires a close look at individual grade levels. In math, performance varies sharply. Students in third and fourth grade showed a fairly solid rate of proficiency on the state assessment, reaching levels that would be considered near or above the state average for those grades. However, math proficiency dropped sharply in fifth grade, and remained low in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. By eighth grade, the proficiency rate was very low. This pattern suggests that while the early elementary math instruction may be on strong footing, students as a group struggle significantly with middle school mathematics. A parent with a child entering the upper elementary or middle grades may want to inquire specifically about how the school supports math learning at those levels.
In English language arts, results were suppressed for third and fourth grade, likely due to privacy thresholds with small tested populations, so a clear picture is not available for those foundational grades. For the grades where data is reported, fifth grade ELA proficiency was low, sixth grade showed a stronger rate near the middle of the range, and seventh and eighth grades again showed low proficiency. The sixth grade ELA result stands out as a relative bright spot in an otherwise challenging set of reading and writing scores. Science testing in grades five and eight showed a moderate rate of proficiency, higher than what the district achieved in math and ELA at those same grade levels.
When placed among the other districts in McCurtain County, Valliant's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile. This comparison is important context: the county includes a range of districts, and while Valliant's own numbers show clear areas of struggle, it performs better on average than most of its immediate neighbors. Chronic absenteeism is low relative to other county districts and falls in the top quartile, meaning a small share of students are missing enough school to be flagged. The district spends at a level in the lower half of the middle range among county districts, which is a straightforward fiscal position.
The state of Oklahoma changed the cut scores for its math and ELA assessments in recent years, which means the current proficiency results cannot be directly compared to prior years' data to measure improvement or decline. This makes it harder to know whether the current picture is an improvement or a step back, and a parent should treat these single-year results as a snapshot rather than a trend.
Valliant operates three schools: an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. No high school graduation rate was available, which is an important gap for any family considering the upper grades. We looked for recent district changes or initiatives that would be relevant to parents; the search found little of lasting impact to report, so no recent developments are presented here. Housing in the district's area shows a mix of values, with home prices generally below the Oklahoma state average and well below the national average, which contributes to a more affordable cost of living typical of rural southeastern Oklahoma. The economic context includes a prevailing mortgage rate and national unemployment rate that are consistent with broader conditions at the time of this data.
For a family considering Valliant, the district offers a small-town setting with a full K-12 pathway under one administration. The early elementary math results are a clear strength relative to later grades. The middle school years, particularly in math, are a soft spot that warrants a direct conversation with the school about curriculum, intervention programs, and how the district supports students through that transition. The low chronic absenteeism suggests most students are attending regularly, which is a positive foundation. The absence of a graduation rate leaves an important unknown about how well the district carries students through to completion. Families who value seeing strong year-over-year growth trends will find that the assessment changes make that difficult to assess here, and may want to visit the schools and talk with teachers and administrators to get a fuller sense of the academic culture.
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