Hello OKC Talk,

I am a graduate student working on a paper about Oklahoma City's revitalization. One of the topics that has come up is the MAPs 4 Kids program and education in the city. I conducted a small poll about school reputation, asking respondents to rank seven school districts. I was hoping that some of you could check the results to make sure it passes the "sniff test"... does this look about right?

(Best Reputation)
Edmond Public Schools
Putnam City Public Schools
Moore Public Schools
Mustang Public Schools
Mid-Del Schools
Western Heights Public Schools
Oklahoma City Public Schools
(Worst Reputation)

Are any of these way out of order?

By the way, PC, Moore and Mustang were all fairly close to each other...

Thanks for your input...

Hello OKC Talk,

I am a graduate student working on a paper about Oklahoma City's revitalization. One of the topics that has come up is the MAPs 4 Kids program and education in the city. I conducted a small poll about school reputation, asking respondents to rank seven school districts. I was hoping that some of you could check the results to make sure it passes the "sniff test"... does this look about right?

(Best Reputation)
Edmond Public Schools
Putnam City Public Schools
Moore Public Schools
Mustang Public Schools
Mid-Del Schools
Western Heights Public Schools
Oklahoma City Public Schools
(Worst Reputation)

Are any of these way out of order?

By the way, PC, Moore and Mustang were all fairly close to each other...

Thanks for your input...
I've been in the public education business here in the metro OKC area for 36 years. That list and the order is fairly accurate in my humble opinion. I think I would switch the PC schools with the Moore schools. Also, if you are considering the entire metro area, you must include the Norman schools being equal to the Edmond schools. In a report by US News and World Report, recently released, ranking the top 100 schools by state, had Tulsa BT Washington-1, Classen School for advanced studies(or whatever it's official title is)-2, then the 3 Edmond schools and 2 Norman schools in the next 5(don't remember the exact order), Westmoore-8. Can't remember 9 & 10 off the top of my head. Southmoore came in at 17. Nine and ten were smaller schools in neither OKC or Tulsa metro. Hope this helps.

If those were the 7 choices then I would say its on the money

I would agree with sooner8693 - Norman 2 and switch Moore and PC.

Wait, am I missing something? I think as far as reputation goes, Deer Creek Public Schools has to not only be on that list, but ahead of some of the others. Unless I am mistaken, I've heard people actually build homes, rather than buy existing homes, to get in the Deer Creek schools. Maybe I'm all wrong, but it's sure what I thought.

I should probably explain the selection process... I wanted to focus on schools that received large amounts of money from MAPs 4 Kids. I chose 5% of the M4K money as an arbitrary cut off, leaving me with those seven districts. This also prevents people from having to make a value judgment about Crutcho Public Schools.

This discussion made me curious about the other big-name districts, so I went back to my notes and expanded the list to include responses beyond the scope of the original question.

(Best Reputation)
Edmond/Deer Creek
Putnam City
Moore
Mustang
Yukon
Mid-Del
Western Heights/Crooked Oak
Oklahoma City
(Worst Reputation)

I noticed a few trends when I asked people about school reputation. First, about half of the folks mentioned Deer Creek when talking about Edmond schools. Second, the people who audibly discussed Moore and PC would usually go school-by-school, leaving PC West was the determining factor when these folks would side with Moore. Third, some people were upset that Yukon was left off; these folks always placed the Millers between Mustang and Mid-Del. Fourth, Bethany is a strange case: one response ranked them as high as Edmond while another put them on par with Mid-Del. Finally, the only note on Norman I have has them in a group tied with PC and Moore.

How often do you think people make decisions where to live based on school districts?

For folks with kids I would say the school district drives the decision of where to live followed by distance to work

For folks with kids I would say the school district drives the decision of where to live followed by distance to work

An anecdote, but my wife and I just bought a house we probably would not otherwise have bought in order to be in the district of a specific elementary school (Wilson).

OKC has good schools, you just have to look for charter/magnet/enterprise schools which fit your kid.

My daughter goes to Kaiser Elementary School near Will Rogers Park. It is an excellent school with great teachers and a lot of cool things happening.