The top reported proficiency rate is 25% in Science. The lowest is 15% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Rongey Ms
Rongey Middle School serves seventh and eighth graders in the Kiefer school district, a small, single-district town in eastern Creek County. The school is the only middle-school-level option for families living in this commuter community, where most working residents drive north to Tulsa for employment. Housing values in Kiefer’s zip code sit roughly in the middle range compared with the state average, and the town has seen a steady climb in population over the past two decades, a pattern that suggests ongoing demand for local homes and services.
The student body is small and fairly diverse in background. About half of the roughly 130 students are white, with the next-largest groups being students who identify as two or more races and students who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. Hispanic and Black students each make up a smaller share. The school serves only two grade levels, so the peer group a seventh grader enters will be the same cohort that moves up to eighth grade the following year. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals was not reported, so it is not possible to characterize the level of economic need from that metric.
The academic picture at Rongey is one that a parent will want to examine closely. State testing results from the most recent year show that the proportion of students scoring at the proficient level or above in math was low in seventh grade and very low in eighth grade. Reading and English language arts results follow a similar pattern, with proficiency rates that are also low in both grades. Science results for eighth graders, the only grade tested in that subject, fall in a comparable range. When placed alongside other districts in Creek County, Rongey’s overall proficiency index, which averages the rates across all tested subjects and grades, lands in the bottom quarter of the county. Oklahoma changed its cut scores for math and English language arts in this testing year, which makes direct comparisons to prior years unreliable; that change alone may account for some of the drop, but the absolute numbers still point toward a school where a large majority of students are not meeting the state’s current proficiency bar. A parent should ask the school what its academic improvement plan looks like and whether there are supports in place for students who are not yet at grade level.
Because Rongey serves only grades seven and eight, there are no graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, or college-and-career readiness figures to report. The school does not offer high school pathways, AP courses, or dual-credit programs by definition, and the data does not indicate whether it offers any specialized program offerings of its own. The district as a whole operates a single pre-K through 12 system within the town, so middle school students will move on to Kiefer High School after eighth grade. The town itself is small, with a highway corridor running through it and limited commercial activity; the school is woven into that fabric rather than sitting on an isolated campus. For a family weighing this school, the central question is whether the academic performance challenges documented in the testing data are being addressed in a way that will prepare their child for high school coursework.
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