The top reported proficiency rate is 15% in Math. The lowest is 12% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Stilwell Es
Stilwell Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade in the Stilwell Public Schools district. The school is located in Stilwell, the county seat of Adair County in eastern Oklahoma, a town with a strong Cherokee identity that sits near the Arkansas state line. The town’s economy includes manufacturing, agriculture, and health services, and housing values are well below the state average, reflecting a low cost of living. The district recently secured a federal Full-Service Community Schools grant to bring wraparound services, expanded learning, and integrated supports to all three of its schools, which are all Title I, small, rural, and low-income. That grant represents an ongoing commitment to a cradle-to-career model that includes onsite childcare.
The school itself enrolls a substantial number of students for an elementary building that stops at fourth grade. The student body is diverse. The largest group by race and ethnicity is American Indian or Alaska Native, followed by students who identify as two or more races, white students, and Hispanic students. Asian and Black students each make up a very small share. This racial and ethnic composition reflects the surrounding community’s Cherokee heritage.
State testing data is available for third and fourth graders in math and English language arts. The results are low. On the Oklahoma School Testing Program assessments, the share of students scoring proficient or above in both subjects and at both grade levels was well below the state average. Fourth-grade performance was notably higher than third-grade performance, but in both cases the proficiency rates were in the single digits or low twenties. It is worth noting that the state changed its cut scores in these subjects for this testing year, so direct comparisons with prior years are not possible, and the district brief suggests the school’s population faces significant socioeconomic challenges.
Because Stilwell Elementary only serves through fourth grade, there is no graduation rate, no high school course access data, and no chronic absenteeism metric here. The school has no charter or magnet status. Information on special education and English learner populations was not available. The comparison set places the school in the top quartile for overall proficiency across tested grades and subjects when measured against other districts in Adair County, a context where the range of proficiency indices is narrow and the top of that range is itself quite low.
A parent considering Stilwell Elementary should understand it as a pre-kindergarten through fourth grade school serving a low-income, rural community with a significant Cherokee population. The school’s test scores are low, and the district is working with federal grant funding to add support systems beyond the classroom. The elementary campus is separate from the town’s downtown core, and the district’s middle and high schools are elsewhere in Stilwell. Families looking at this school will want to talk with the school directly about the specific academic interventions, family engagement programs, and early childhood offerings available, particularly given the district’s stated focus on whole-child supports.
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