The top reported proficiency rate is 14% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Horace Mann Es
Horace Mann Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Shawnee, a midsized city that functions as the county seat of Pottawatomie County and a regional hub for commerce, healthcare, and higher education. The school is part of the Shawnee Public Schools district, and its home campus sits on North Draper Street in a neighborhood mix of early‑1900s homes and mid‑century commercial strips. The city itself blends a historic downtown corridor with highway‑oriented development along Interstate 40, and it has a notable Native American presence, with the Citizen Potawatomi Nation headquartered here. Housing in the area is relatively affordable compared with state and national benchmarks, and the local economy is anchored by a regional medical center, Oklahoma Baptist University, tribal government operations, and industrial employers.
Horace Mann’s enrollment of roughly 200 students makes it a small‑sized elementary by most standards. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse: the largest single group is white, followed closely by students who identify as two or more races, then Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, and Asian. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced‑price meals was not available, nor were counts for students with disabilities or English learners, so a fuller picture of the school’s economic and support needs is missing from this profile.
The school participates in Oklahoma’s state testing program, the OSTP, for grades three through five in math and English language arts, and grade five in science. In the most recent testing year, proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grades fell well below the midpoint of the county’s school districts. Overall, the school’s proficiency index placed it in the bottom quartile of districts in Pottawatomie County, a group of about a dozen districts. The state also changed cut scores for math and English language arts that same year, which makes direct year‑over‑year comparisons unreliable. A parent looking at these results will want to ask the school about its academic improvement strategies and how it supports students who are not yet meeting grade‑level benchmarks.
Because Horace Mann is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report. No information was available on chronic absenteeism, discipline rates, or staffing ratios, so a parent visiting or contacting the school directly may wish to inquire about class sizes, student‑teacher relationships, and the overall learning environment. The data on program offerings was also absent, so it is not clear what enrichment or intervention programs, if any, the school provides beyond the core curriculum.
The surrounding community is primarily car‑dependent. Interstate 40 runs through Shawnee, and while there is a walkable downtown core and a campus area around Oklahoma Baptist University, most residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors require driving. The city has been growing at a moderate pace, with a new elementary school built on the north side to accommodate that growth, but the district brief turned up no recent policy changes or facility updates specific to Horace Mann.
For families considering this school, the picture is one of a small, diverse elementary in an affordable, moderately growing regional city, with academic proficiency that is an area of concern relative to other schools in the county. The missing pieces on economic need, special populations, and school climate mean that a visit and a conversation with the principal would provide the practical detail that static data alone cannot supply.
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