The top reported proficiency rate is 26% in Math. The lowest is 20% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Zion
Zion is a small public school district in Adair County, Oklahoma, serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The district has a single school, Zion Public School, and its enrollment is small for a PK-8 system. Because the district does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. State testing data was available for the 2024-25 school year, though the state changed its scoring criteria for math and English language arts assessments that year, which makes direct year-over-year comparisons unreliable.
On the 2024-25 Oklahoma State Testing Program (OSTP), results varied considerably by grade and subject. In fourth-grade math, roughly half of students scored at or above the proficient level, a bright spot in the data. Elsewhere, the numbers were softer. Fifth-grade science showed a low proficiency rate, and sixth-grade math was similarly low. Seventh-grade math and eighth-grade English language arts were also below the midpoint of what one might expect. Several grade-level results were suppressed by the state due to small group sizes, meaning the data could not be publicly reported for those small cohorts. When taken together across all tested grades and subjects, the district’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among Adair County’s districts. That county-level comparison is notable, because the cohort includes several other small and mid-sized districts, and the top-quartile position suggests that while individual grade-level results are uneven, the district as a whole performs above the middle of its local peer group.
The student body is predominantly American Indian or Alaska Native, with a much smaller share of white students and very small numbers of students from other racial backgrounds. Information on economic disadvantage, such as free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, was not available in the data, nor was information on special education or English learner populations. A parent may want to ask the school directly about the supports available for students who need extra academic help.
Chronic absenteeism, a measure of how often students miss a substantial number of school days, stood at a rate that is above the midpoint among Adair County districts. This is an area where families may want to inquire further, as higher absenteeism can affect classroom continuity and student progress. The district’s per-pupil spending falls in the middle range among county districts, slightly below the median, which aligns with its small scale.
The locale brief and district brief provided no additional context about the community, the housing market, or recent changes at the district. Publicly reported information on referendums, curriculum shifts, or property tax changes was not found, so those topics are not addressed here rather than guessed at. Housing values in the zip code that covers the district’s area are below the statewide average, consistent with a rural part of eastern Oklahoma.
Zion is a small, rural PK-8 district that, by one composite measure, holds a relatively strong position among its county peers, but that strength masks wide variation in achievement across individual grades and subjects. The student population is almost entirely Native American, which shapes the peer environment. For a parent considering this district, the key unknowns that fall outside the available data include the level of academic intervention for struggling students, the school climate and discipline approach, and how the district prepares its eighth graders for the transition to a high school elsewhere, since the district itself does not operate one.
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