U.S. News: OSDE denied access to data, skewing Oklahoma school rankings

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — U.S. News and World Report says the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) did not grant them access to schools AP testing data, causing numerous Oklahoma schools to plummet in U.S. News rankings the past two years.  

OSDE claims they sent the data, but it must’ve been lost in the mail.

The data omission mainly caused larger, suburban high schools to drop in the rankings while elevating smaller, rural schools, beginning in U.S. News and World Report’s 2023 ‘Best High Schools in Oklahoma’ rankings, and continuing in the 2024 rankings.

Superintendents from numerous districts across Oklahoma spoke out to News 4, raising concerns about the larger effects the skewed data may have on communities across the state.

Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Rob Miller says many families who have moved to his fast-growing district told him that they chose Bixby because its high school has historically ranked very high in U.S. News and World Report’s annual ‘Best High Schools in Oklahoma’ list.

"[The list] is a place where families and businesses moving into the state of Oklahoma look to see the quality of the schools in that particular district,” Miller said. "Our chambers of commerce really work hard to increase the appeal of our communities for outside businesses and families."

Miller is far from the only administrator who knows the importance families—and even businesses—place on the U.S. News list when deciding where to move.

"You don't just go to a public school, you go to a community,” Mustang Public Schools Superintendent Charles Bradley said. “Because the community will embrace the school system and the school system embraces the community."

U.S. News released its 2024 rankings for ‘Best High Schools in Oklahoma’ last week.

Of just the top 20 ranked schools this year—13 them have fewer than 400 students.

Meanwhile, very few have enrollment of more than 1000 students.

U.S. News does not archive its lists from previous years.

But through the internet wayback machine, News 4 was able to see the first 20 schools on U.S. News and world report’s 2022 list of ‘Best High Schools in Oklahoma.’  

In order, they were:

1. HARDING CHARTER PREPERATORY ACADEMY
2. CLASSEN HIGH SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDIES (OKLAHOMA CITY)
3. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL (TULSA)
4. MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL (EDMOND)
5. EDMOND NORTH HIGH SCHOOL
6. HARDING FINE ARTS ACADEMY
7. SANTA FE HIGH SCHOOL (EDMOND)
8. THOMAS EDISON HIGH SCHOOL (TULSA)
9. DOVE SCIENCE ACADEMY (TULSA)
10. NORMAN NORTH HIGH SCHOOL
11. PLAINVIEW HIGH SCHOOL (ARDMORE)
12. DEER CREEK HIGH SCHOOL
13. DOVE SCIENCE ACADEMY (OKLAHOMA CITY)
14. BETHANY HIGH SCHOOL
15. CHISHOLM HIGH SCHOOL (ENID)
16. BIXBY HIGH SCHOOL
17. WESTMOORE HIGH SCHOOL (MOORE)
18. PIEDMONT HIGH SCHOOL
19. JENKS HIGH SCHOOL
20. PUTNAM CITY NORTH HIGH SCHOOL

News 4 found, while some of those schools rose slightly in the 2024 rankings, most of them fell and did not rank anywhere near the top 20 in 2024.

Here’s how the Top 20 ranked schools from 2022 fared in the 2024 rankings:

• Dove Science Academy (OKC) went up 9 spots, from #13 in 2022, to #4 in 2024.
• Classen High School of Advanced Studies, a magnet school in Oklahoma City Public schools, went up 1 spot, from #2 in 2022 to #1 in 2024.
• Booker T. Washington High, a magnet school in Tulsa Public Schools, went up 1 spot, from #3 in 2022 to #2 in 2024.
• Edmond Memorial High went down 1 spot, from #4 in 2022 to #5 in 2024.
• Norman North High went down 3 spots, from #10 in 2022 to #13 in 2024.
• Edmond North High went down 5 spots, from #5 in 2022 to #10 in 2024.
• Bethany High went down 6 spots, from #14 in 2022 to #20 in 2024.
• Harding Charter Preparatory School went down 7 spots, from #1 in 2022 to #8 in 2024.
• Harding Fine Arts Academy went down 10 spots, from #6 in 2022 to #16 in 2024.
• Edmond Sante Fe High went down 15 spots, from #7 in 2022 to #22 in 2024.
• Piedmont High went down 22 spots, from #22 in 2022 to #40 in 2024.
• Ardmore Plainview High went down 24 spots, from #11 in 2022 to #35 in 2024.
• Jenks High went down 45 spots, from #19 in 2022 to #64 in 2024.
• Bixby High went down 49 spots, from #16 in 2022 to #65 in 2024.
• Enid Chisholm High went down 53 spots, from #15 in 2022 to #68 in 2024.
• Dove Science Academy (Tulsa) went down 60 spots, from #9 in 2022 to #69 in 2024.
• Putnam City North High went down 65 spots, from #20 in 2022 to #85 in 2024.
• Westmoore High went down 73 spots, from #17 in 2022 to #90 in 2024.
• Thomas Edison High in Tulsa went down 78 spots, from #8 in 2022 to #86 in 2024.
• Deer Creek High went down 122 spots, from #12 in 2022 to #134 in 2024.

"It was very perplexing as to why we would see such a plunge in our score,” Miller said.

News 4 reached out to U.S. News to figure out what happened.

A spokesperson said U.S. News looks at several factors when they give each school its score and rank, including graduation rates, state testing scores and ‘college readiness.’

U.S. News says they base a school’s ‘college readiness’ score off the school's Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) testing and enrollment data.

It gives schools a boost in the rankings if they have more students enrolled in college-level AP or IB classes, and an even bigger boost if they score well on AP or IB tests.

"And in most of our larger suburban districts, that's a pretty significant population of students,” Miller said.

According to U.S. News, a school’s "college readiness" score accounts for 30 percent of a its overall score in U.S. News’s rankings—the most of any factor.

U.S. News says they pull AP data from College Board—the national organization in charge of AP curriculum and testing.

But — U.S. News told News 4, this year, OSDE "did not grant U.S. News permission to use their schools' AP data in the rankings. This means schools in [Oklahoma] that administered AP exams were not able to be fully credited on their college readiness."

U.S. News said the same thing happened in 2023 as well.

They said the only other state to deny access to AP records was Maine.

The last year OSDE allowed U.S. News to look at the AP data was 2022—the final year before State Superintendent Ryan Walters took over OSDE.

"The State Department deserves to or needs to give an answer because our communities deserve to know the rationale behind the decision to not release this data to the U.S. News,” Miller said.

News 4 reached out to OSDE spokesperson Dan Isett with several questions.

“SDE physically sent the information to the College Board, and cannot account for their lack of receipt – likely a post office issue,” Isett said. “Additionally, we gave them permission and access to the data through a board vote. We have been in touch with US News and World Report to make sure Oklahoma has the rankings for next year.”

News 4 asked Isett how this could explain the data also not being made available in 2023, he did respond. "There had to be a deliberate decision to do that because it appears that U.S. News made multiple attempts to get the data and eventually was just rebuffed and said, you're not getting it,” Miller said.

Sand Springs Public Schools Superintendent Sherry Durkee told News 4 the data omission doesn’t just affect the reputation of schools when compared to other Oklahoma schools, but also when compared to schools across the U.S.

“We want to do the very best we can to promote our schools, not just our individual districts, but the State of Oklahoma as a whole,” Durkee said. “Especially in a national publication, as we're trying to draw people and businesses here to our state. And so that would be just kind of a global overarching, I think, motive for us as a community of Oklahomans to make sure that we're reporting and approaching any kind of media position in the best, most positive way we can.

Other leaders worry, beyond the effects the data omission could have on schools’ reputations, it could also negatively affect students as they seek admission to colleges.

“I am curious about how universities may use this data when they are looking to recruit students, considering scholarship offers, that sort of thing,” Jenks Public Schools Superintendent Stacey Butterfield said. “I'm curious as to how, you know, incomplete data and certainly maybe not a full representation of the achievement outcomes of our students may affect those decisions.” Without answers, many school leaders are hoping, minimally, for some sort of footnote on the current list.

"If there is something out there that could easily be corrected with the correct set of data or access to the data,” Bradley said. “I think that's that that's a point that deserves to be heard."