The top reported proficiency rate is 27% in Science. The lowest is 21% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Tannehill Public School
Tannehill Public School serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade and is part of a small district that shares its name. The school sits on Tannehill Road in McAlester, the county seat of Pittsburg County, a city that functions as a trade and employment hub for southeast Oklahoma. McAlester’s economy relies heavily on the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, and a second corrections facility; the city’s population has been relatively stable but very slightly declining over recent decades. Housing values in the area are moderately below the state benchmark and well below the national figure, which may make the community more accessible for homebuyers compared to many parts of Oklahoma.
The school itself is small, with an enrollment that places it among the smaller schools in the county for the grades it covers. The student body is predominantly white, with about a quarter of students identifying as American Indian, a smaller share identifying as two or more races, and a modest Hispanic representation. Asian students make up a very small fraction. Data on students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, on students with individualized education programs, and on English learners were not reported; a parent may want to ask the school directly about these populations and the supports available.
Academically, the school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades sits slightly above the midpoint when compared to the sixteen districts in Pittsburg County. That comparative position suggests that, on average, Tannehill’s results are in the middle of the county pack, not at the top but also not at the bottom. Within the school, reported proficiency rates in English language arts vary by grade: in the early grades, roughly a third of tested students met the state’s proficient benchmark, while by sixth and eighth grade the shares were notably lower. Science results in fifth grade were in a similar range. Mathematics results were suppressed at every grade level, likely because the number of students tested was too small to report publicly without risking identification. No mathematics or science results were available for several grades for the same reason, and no multi-year trend data existed to show whether performance is improving or declining.
Because Tannehill only serves through eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to consider. Students who continue here will need to transition to a high school elsewhere, either within the McAlester area or in another district. The district brief turned up no recent referendums, curriculum changes, or property-tax shifts that would affect families, so the school’s programming appears to have been stable in the near term.
Several other dimensions that can matter to families were not available in the data. There was no information on chronic absenteeism, on disciplinary incidents, on class sizes or teacher qualifications, or on course offerings such as advanced or enrichment programs. The school’s locale is not classified in the data, but McAlester is a mostly auto-oriented city: the downtown historic district contains the county courthouse and a handful of cultural landmarks, but the city’s overall layout is spread out, and the school’s location on Tannehill Road places it in a more rural pocket outside the core. For families considering this school, a visit and a conversation with the principal about what happens after eighth grade, about the small-class dynamics, and about the subjects where testing data was suppressed would fill in the picture that the available records leave incomplete.
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