The top reported proficiency rate is 20% in Science. The lowest is 10% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Tulakes Es
Tulakes Elementary is a neighborhood public school in Oklahoma City serving prekindergarten through fifth grade. It is part of the Putnam City School District, a large suburban system that surrounds the state capital. The school’s enrollment is moderate for its grade band, and the student body is majority Black, with significant shares of Hispanic students, White students, and students identifying as two or more races. Smaller groups include American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. Federal data on economic disadvantage, English learner status, and special education identification were not available in the source records, so a parent looking to understand the level of student support should ask the school directly about those programs and funding streams.
State assessment results for Tulakes are low across the tested subjects and grades. On the Oklahoma School Testing Program, which covers grades three through five at this school, the share of students scoring at or above the proficient level was in the low single digits or low teens for math and English language arts in each grade, and slightly higher for fifth-grade science. Oklahoma changed its cut scores for math and ELA in the year these results were reported, which means a direct comparison to prior years is not possible. Still, the raw proficiency rates place the school’s overall academic performance in the bottom quarter among districts in Oklahoma County. As an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report.
The classroom environment reflects a school that is predominantly African American and Hispanic in a region where the surrounding district has recently made a large financial commitment. Putnam City Schools passed a historic bond package in 2024, the largest in the district’s history, funding safety upgrades, classroom technology, transportation, and facility improvements across all campuses. That investment suggests the district is prioritizing physical infrastructure and security, though how those dollars translate into academic support at Tulakes is something a family would want to explore.
The housing market in the school’s area, based on the ZIP code in which it sits, shows home values that are moderately priced relative to national benchmarks, with rents that are also below the national median. The broader Oklahoma City context matters here: the city is geographically enormous and heavily auto-oriented, so Tulakes families will likely rely on driving for commuting and errands. Downtown Oklahoma City, roughly a twenty-minute drive, concentrates the region’s cultural and employment anchors: government offices, energy-sector headquarters, the Bricktown entertainment district, and major medical and research institutions. The city has been growing steadily, fueled by a mix of federal employment at Tinker Air Force Base, energy-industry jobs, and public investment projects like the MAPS series of sales-tax-funded initiatives that have revitalized the urban core. The residential neighborhoods around Tulakes are part of the northwest quadrant of the city, a largely suburban area with strip-commercial corridors and single-family homes.
For a parent considering Tulakes, the picture is straightforward. The school is a standard elementary serving a diverse student population within a district that is investing heavily in its buildings and technology. The academic results, however, are notably weak relative to other schools in the county. A family choosing Tulakes would want to ask about intervention and enrichment programs, the availability of tutoring, and how the school’s teachers and leaders are working to raise achievement. The surrounding community offers a relatively affordable cost of living and access to a large metropolitan job market, but the school’s academic profile is the central consideration.
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