Merritt Es, Elk City OK - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Merritt Es

Merritt ES is a public elementary and middle school serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the Merritt school district and is located on the eastern edge of Elk City, a small western Oklahoma city that functions as a regional trade center for a wide area of the state and part of the Texas Panhandle. Elk City’s economy is built around petroleum and natural gas, healthcare, agriculture, and wind energy, with Great Plains Regional Medical Center as the largest employer. The city has seen a slight population decline in recent years, though job growth has been steady. Housing in the area is generally more affordable than the statewide and national averages, which can be a practical advantage for families looking to buy a home.

Academic performance at Merritt ES, measured by Oklahoma’s state assessments, places the school among the highest in Beckham County when proficiency rates are averaged across tested subjects and grades. That puts it above the midpoint of the county’s other districts, a notable strength for families weighing local options. Looking at individual grades and subjects, the results are uneven. Mathematics proficiency is strongest in third and seventh grades, where a majority of students meet the state’s proficient or above bar, while fourth and eighth grades show softer performance. In English language arts, the picture is less complete: the school has reported results for third, fifth, and eighth grades, with those ranging from roughly a third of students proficient in fifth grade to just under half in third grade. Results for fourth, sixth, and seventh grade ELA are suppressed in the available data, likely due to small group sizes or privacy rules—a parent may want to follow up with the school directly for those grades. In science, fifth graders posted a strong showing, and eighth graders had a more moderate result.

The student body is predominantly white, with a sizeable Hispanic minority and very small numbers of American Indian, Asian, Black, multiracial, and Pacific Islander students. The school’s enrollment is consistent across the PK-8 grade span, with a slight dip in eighth grade. Data on the share of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as well as counts of students with disabilities and English learners, were not available in the source information, so the economic and support-need profile of the student population is not clear from these records.

Civil rights data, discipline rates, attendance, and course access information were also missing, leaving several dimensions of school environment undocumented. The Merritt district, which runs this school, did not have any publicly reported recent changes such as bond measures, curriculum shifts, or boundary adjustments that the available research could capture, meaning the operational context appears stable on the surface.

For a family considering this school, the key takeaways are straightforward. Merritt ES serves a single PK-8 campus in a small city with a stable, energy-driven local economy and affordable housing relative to the state. Its composite test scores are strong for the county, though performance varies by grade and subject, and some grade-level ELA results are not publicly reported. The lack of data on student support categories and school climate means a prospective parent would do well to visit the school and ask about special education services, English learner programming, and the school’s approach to discipline and attendance.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 358%

School 58% · District 58%

▲ 29 pts above state median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 31%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 27 pts above state median

Grade 645%

School 45% · District 45%

▲ 27 pts above state median

Grade 754%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 34 pts above state median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 39%

▲ 26 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 49%

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 18 pts above state median

Science

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 68%

▲ 44 pts above state median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 12 pts above state median

This schoolMERRITT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income67%Higher-income65%1 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income44%Higher-income71%27 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income62%Higher-income63%1 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income59%Higher-income69%9 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income52%Higher-income64%12 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income42%Higher-income63%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income47%Higher-income65%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income35%Higher-income67%31 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income41%Higher-income53%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income50%Higher-income72%22 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income65%Higher-income60%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income47%Higher-income74%27 pp gap