The recently released results of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card, show that academic outcomes in Oklahoma have plunged despite massive spending increases for public schools.

But NAEP tests also highlighted a notable bright spot: Private Catholic schools dramatically outperformed their public-school counterparts, even when serving low-income students.

While NAEP does not have state-level data for Catholic schools, the test results indicate that low-income children in private schools are performing up to two grade levels better than their public-school peers.

The results don’t shock Lara Schuler, senior director of Catholic Education for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

“Catholic schools routinely perform well in literacy and math as demonstrated again in the recent NAEP scores,” Schuler said. “Intentional focus on the needs of the child and the use of solid instructional strategies for literacy and numeracy development makes a difference for the outcomes of our students. Our Catholic educators as well as those across the country are dedicated to helping their students be the best they can be in all subject areas.”

The NAEP results bolster the case for the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program, which provides families with refundable tax credits of $5,000 to $7,500 per child. The largest credits go to families with the least income. During its first year of operation, the program benefited more than 27,000 children, and a recent report showed there were far more beneficiaries from low-income families than from families in the program’s highest-income bracket.

Every two years, NAEP measures the educational achievement and progress of the nation’s fourth- and eighth-grade students in reading and mathematics, utilizing a representative sample of students in each state. NAEP scores are reported on a 0-to-500 scale.

Researchers say 10 points on a state’s NAEP scale score roughly equates to a year of learning.

Oklahoma Public Schools Among the Nation’s Worst

The results in Oklahoma’s public schools were among the nation’s worst.

Oklahoma’s fourth-grade reading score has declined nine points since 2019, meaning today’s fourth graders are nearly a full grade behind their 2019 counterparts. Oklahoma’s score on fourth-grade reading was also lower than the average in all but three states.

And results are even worse for children in the bottom 25 percent. Fourth-grade reading scores for that group have declined 13 points in Oklahoma since 2019, meaning those students lag more than a year behind their counterparts in prior fourth-grade classes.

Compared to 2015, which was a high-water mark for academic outcomes in Oklahoma on NAEP’s fourth-grade reading test, reading scores for the bottom quarter of fourth-grade students have plunged 18 points, representing the loss of nearly two years’ worth of learning.

NAEP results show just 16 percent of economically disadvantaged Oklahoma fourth graders are proficient in reading today.

While some public-school defenders dismiss the NAEP results as the product of a state having a higher share of students from low-income households with limited parental involvement, research indicates those factors do not account for most of the gap between Oklahoma and the rest of the country.

Even after adjusting for demographics, Oklahoma still ranked 35th in the nation, according to a review conducted by the Urban Institute.

While NAEP tests are not administered at most private schools, Catholic schools have long participated in NAEP and provide a point of reference for comparisons between public school systems maintained by state governments and private schools.

The gap between fourth graders in Oklahoma’s public schools and fourth graders attending Catholic schools across the nation is dramatic.

While Oklahoma’s scale score on fourth-grade reading was 207, the score for fourth graders in Catholic schools was 230. That means Catholic students are more than two grades ahead of the typical fourth grader in an Oklahoma public school.

The gap between Catholic schools and public schools across the nation did not go unnoticed by education researchers and advocates.

“The academic advantage for Catholic school students has been growing over the last decade, and approximately equals two grade levels (!!) in both 8th grade Math and Reading in 2024,” wrote Matthew Ladner, executive editor of NextSteps.

Marc Porter Magee, CEO and founder of 50CAN, a network of advocates focused on education, similarly noted, “How well does the Catholic school advantage on the 2024 NAEP hold up when looking at student achievement between schools with similar levels of low-income students? Quite well. On average, Catholic school students scored two grade levels above their public school counterparts.”

Magee also noted that, on average, black students in Catholic schools were 1.4 grade levels ahead of black students in traditional public schools.

“In fact, if all Black students performed at the level of Black Catholic students, the racial achievement gap in reading would be completely eliminated and it would be reduced by two-thirds in math,” Magee wrote.

He similarly noted that “if all Hispanic students performed at the level of Hispanic Catholic students, Hispanics would reverse the achievement gap by outperforming the US average on 3 of 4 tests.”

The average black student at a Catholic school had a fourth-grade reading score on NAEP that was eight points higher than the statewide average in Oklahoma. Hispanic Catholic students outscored Oklahoma students by 14 points on fourth-grade reading – meaning Hispanic students at private Catholic schools are nearly a grade-and-a-half ahead of the average Oklahoma student from all backgrounds.

Oklahoma Spending Has Increased Dramatically

Oklahoma’s poor results occurred despite unprecedented spending in Oklahoma public schools.

According to financial data reported by schools to the state’s Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS), Oklahoma public schools received $9,600,703,488 in new revenue in the 2023-2024 school year, an increase of $3.3 billion compared to the $6,300,400,107 reported during the 2017-2018 school year.

On a per-pupil basis, Oklahoma public-school revenue surged 51 percent from the 2017-2018 school year to the 2023-2024 school year, reaching $13,736 per pupil, a sum that significantly exceeds the average private-school tuition rate in Oklahoma.

When Private School Review examined tuition rates at 25 private high schools and 42 private elementary schools in Oklahoma, the organization found the average tuition in Oklahoma is $8,320 annually for private elementary schools and $9,403 for private high schools for the 2024-2025 school year.

While the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program has allowed many families to access private schools who could not otherwise afford it, the program was capped at $150 million in its first year, and demand exceeded the supply of tax credits.

The cap is scheduled to increase to $250 million, but demand is also expected to grow as well since many more working-class families are expected to explore private school options now that the program is available.

Legislation has been filed this year to raise or eliminate the cap, which would allow more Oklahoma families to benefit from the program. That proposal is eligible for a hearing within the next few weeks.

Photo Credit: Archdiocese of Oklahoma City