The top reported proficiency rate is 19% in Science. The lowest is 11% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Van Buren Es
Van Buren Elementary is a pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade school in the Oklahoma City Public Schools system, the state’s largest district. The school sits on the southwest side of Oklahoma City, a part of the city that is primarily residential and lies outside the denser downtown core. The school community is small enough that most families would recognize one another, and the grade band means it serves children in the early and upper-elementary years, after which students move on to a different campus for upper grades.
The student body is heavily Hispanic, with smaller numbers of Black, White, Native American, and multiracial students. The school’s free or reduced-price lunch information was missing from the data we saw, so we cannot characterize the level of economic need directly; a parent may want to ask the school or district for that figure if it matters for their planning. The school is not a charter, and it receives Title I funding status that was not reported, so whether it qualifies for federal support based on poverty concentration is unclear from what was provided.
On state assessments for the most recent year available, proficiency rates in both math and English language arts were low. For third graders, fewer than one in five students scored at the proficient level in either subject. By fourth grade, the share was smaller still. These results place the school’s overall academic performance well below the midpoint when compared with other elementary schools across Oklahoma County districts. The state changed the test cut scores in recent years, which makes trend comparisons unreliable, but the current snapshot shows that most students are not reaching the state’s proficiency benchmarks. Science assessment data is only available from several years ago and comes from a test administered in fifth grade—a grade the school no longer serves—so it offers little useful insight into current instruction.
Because the school ends at fourth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, nor any data on high school outcomes. That is a factor families with younger children will need to consider when looking ahead to the middle and high school options that feed from Van Buren.
The housing market in the zip code that serves the school area is moderate in cost. Typical home values are below the state median, and rents are also relatively affordable, especially when compared with national benchmarks. The area is part of Oklahoma City, an enormous municipality that has grown steadily through the MAPS tax-funded development program, which has spurred downtown revitalization, new parks, a streetcar system, and convention infrastructure. Major employment anchors include Tinker Air Force Base, the state capital complex, energy-sector corporate offices, and the Oklahoma City livestock market. The city’s geography is heavily auto-dependent, and the Van Buren neighborhood is typical of the outer residential areas where walking to services is limited.
We looked for information on Oklahoma City Public Schools’ recent strategic priorities or bond measures but found little to report from our research. The district is large and serves a wide range of neighborhoods, and its performance across schools varies considerably. Van Buren sits in the stretch of the district where academic outcomes are lower than in many of the county’s other districts. For a family evaluating this school, the clear picture is of a small, diverse elementary where most students are currently not scoring at grade level, set within a large and rapidly growing city where housing remains affordable relative to much of the state and nation. The school’s early-grade focus means the next stage of schooling is a separate decision that will come quickly.
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