The top reported proficiency rate is 13% in Math. The lowest is 7% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Buchanan Es
Buchanan Elementary is a public PK-4 school in the Oklahoma City Public Schools district. It is located in a central part of the city, on Northwest 18th Street. The school serves a grade band that ends before state testing in grade five, so it has state test results only for third and fourth grade, not all grades. The school’s enrollment is large for its grade band. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with most students who are not Hispanic identified as white, Black, or of two or more races; there are also small groups of students who are American Indian and Asian.
State testing data from the most recent assessment year shows low proficiency rates in both reading and math at the tested grade levels. In third grade math and fourth grade math, the share of students reaching the proficient level was modest, and the share of fourth graders scoring proficient in reading was notably very small. Third grade reading proficiency was also low. These results position the school’s overall academic performance, across tested subjects and grades, in the bottom quartile relative to all other school districts in Oklahoma County (the only county-level comparison available, since the school sits within a single-district comparison set). It is important to note that Oklahoma changed the scoring standards for reading and math tests starting with this assessment year, which means these results are not directly comparable to prior years’ data. For science, the only available result is from a pre-pandemic year, and it too showed a low proficiency rate. A parent looking at these numbers will want to understand how the school is working with students who are not yet at grade level and what academic support is offered.
Oklahoma City itself is a large and sprawling state capital with a mixed economy anchored by oil and gas, government, aviation, and the livestock market. The city has been growing, sustained in part by voter-approved MAPS projects that have funded downtown development. The school sits in a central neighborhood of this vast city, where housing values are below the state average and have seen a slight year-over-year decline. Rents are roughly in line with the national rent-to-income benchmark. The national unemployment rate has been steady at a moderate level. These housing figures suggest that this is a relatively affordable part of a growing metro area, a consideration for families looking at the local housing market.
The district did not supply recent information about its strategic initiatives, budget changes, or programming updates at the individual school level, so it is not possible to say what specific new resources or programs Buchanan may be offering. Parents may want to ask the school directly about its approach to early literacy and math support, and about any enrichment programs available in the primary grades. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, which means fifth graders move on to a different building; this feeder pattern may be a factor for families planning ahead. The data available does not include information on student support services such as special education or English learner programs, so a parent should inquire about those directly as well.
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