The top reported proficiency rate is 22% in Science. The lowest is 9% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Oklahoma Union Ms
Oklahoma Union Middle School serves students in sixth through eighth grade and sits within the small, rural border community of South Coffeyville, Oklahoma, just a mile south of Coffeyville, Kansas. The town itself has a compact footprint with a mix of residential housing, a handful of small businesses including a bank, a rural medical clinic, and a lumber yard, and four churches. The South Coffeyville Stockyards are an important local business. The town’s population has been declining over time, and its commercial base appears reduced from a period when the community supported a wider range of retail and manufacturing.
The school is part of the Oklahoma Union district. A search for recent district-level changes found little of lasting impact that would be relevant for parents to know. The district brief contains no active issues or major shifts to report.
Enrollment at the middle school is relatively small. The student body is about evenly split between white students and American Indian or Alaska Native students, with a smaller share identifying as two or more races. Very few students are Asian or Hispanic. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, and figures for students with disabilities and English learners were also missing, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the level of support for those populations.
State testing results from the most recent year show proficiency rates that are low across all three tested subjects and all three grade levels. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above was below one in ten in sixth and seventh grades and lower still in eighth grade. In English language arts, about one in five sixth graders reached the proficient bar, but in seventh and eighth grades the rate fell to about one in ten. In science, which is tested only in eighth grade, slightly more than one in five students were proficient. When compared with other districts in Nowata County, the school’s overall proficiency index places below the midpoint of the three districts in the county. A parent considering this school will want to look into the academic supports and instructional approaches the school uses, particularly given that the state changed its cut scores for math and English language arts in this testing cycle, which makes direct comparison with prior years uncertain.
The housing market in the area is more affordable than the national median, with home values below the state average. The typical home in the zip code is valued modestly, and the estimated monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home with a standard down payment is lower than what many families face in pricier markets. This reflects the rural character and limited local economic opportunities of the community.
No information was available on class sizes, staffing ratios, discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, or the specific programs the school offers. These are meaningful gaps for any family trying to understand day-to-day conditions and student experience. Similarly, there is no data on the school’s graduation rate, which is expected because the school does not serve the upper high school grades.
For a family that values a small, rural school environment and the affordability that often accompanies it, Oklahoma Union Middle School offers that setting. The academic performance data points to an area where a parent would want to engage with the school and the district about how they are working to improve outcomes. The limited availability of information on programs and student supports means that asking direct questions of the school administration is especially important.
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