The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

My family might be relocating to the Tulsa area and we'd like to know which school system is rated the highest?

Jenks / Broken Arrow / Owasso / Union

Or another one?

Thanks for your help! :)

My son is in Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) and we are very happy with him there.  Though, I will admit you have to know which specific district you are in within TPS as some schools are not as good as others.  The magnet system in TPS is very well regarded too.

Actually, IMHO, all the schools are probably as good but some have a higher proportion of parents who do not care and thus - the entire school suffers.  If you PM me I would be happy to share what school he goes to but for obvious reasons I am not comfortable just posting it in the open.

Also note that Jenks and Union schools are in Tulsa.  When I moved here that kind of threw me for a loop.  Same city, 3 different school districts.

The conventional wisdom is that Union Schools are the best.  They in fact do have very nice facilities and do perform well on standardized test.  

Jenks is also a good and fast growing district.  They are building new schools to keep up with demand.

Owasso, from what I have heard, is becoming over crowded.  I know several families who have gone to private schools from there for that reason.  No indication that performance is dropping, just that it has gone from a suburban school feel to a larger city situation.

I have not heard much, good or bad, about Broken Arrow schools.
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What age is your child(ren)?  Are schools the over riding concern in where you live (commute, cost, style, location)? Public only or is private an option, and where are you moving from?  

I ask because where I am from private schools are often private schools with religion in them, but here it sees they are religious institutions with schools attached (e.g. they have books such as "American History for Christians" which has some different takes and versions than most learn).  Not that they are not good educational institutions too, just different from what I experienced "up North."

And just in case I haven't made everyone mad... most of the "best schools" also seem to have the best football teams.  Coincidence or is that why they are considered the best schools. [:P]

The best elementary school and the best high school in the region are both Tulsa Public.

If you can get into the TPS magnet school path it is by far the best in results. Eisenhower, Thoreau, Carver, Washington will get your kids the best chance in college. Washington is the highest rated high school in the state. Eisenhower is a foreign language immersion school which is a favorite among doctors & lawyers children in the area. Mayo is an open architecture, teaching grade school. They put an emphasis on how kids learn and newer teaching methods.

Even if you can't there are fine schools within each system but you have to visit them and find unvarnished opinions from non-cheerleader types. For instance Lee and Elliot are high performing grade schools and Wilson, Edison middle schools have high performance tracks to follow. Memorial high school has a very promising engineering track. Jenks and Union are quite popular with their surrounding communities and have a large investment per student. Good luck.

We are coming from Edmond, Oklahoma. Our son isn't of school age yet but we'd like to only move once and he will attend public school.

Thanks for your input!

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Originally posted by sweetpeamc

We are coming from Edmond, Oklahoma. Our son isn't of school age yet but we'd like to only move once and he will attend public school.

Thanks for your input!

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Heh, I know Edmond. You will love Jenks.

I live in Tulsa, but in the BA district. You can't go wrong with the big 3 -- BA, Jenks, Union. Jenks/Union  get a lot of pub for their athletics, but BA has a lot of good schools, especially for the young kids. BA's music and fine-arts programs are excellent. The high school band won the national championship last year, their cheer squads win very often as well. Tons of pride in those three school.

Don't forget Bixby. I don't have kids myself so I can't really judge them, but everyone I know who does have kids in the Bixby school system speaks highly of it.

Owasso isn't really overcrowding .... the Owasso school board is actively working on new elementary schools and expansions at other schools.

Thank you, everyone - your info has been invaluable in helping us narrow our search to specific locations. [8D]

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Originally posted by Cubs

Owasso isn't really overcrowding .... the Owasso school board is actively working on new elementary schools and expansions at other schools.

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Glad to hear it Cubs.  I tried to make it clear that this was a "from what I hear" situation and not personal knowledge.  They indicated the feel had changed as the school population had risen.

Each additional good school choice puts pressure on all the others to do better.  Which, of course, IMHO comes down to how good the parents are at helping reach that goal.

I would say that the magnet school system within TPS are the best schools in the state, but you are not assured of getting your kids in the system, these schools have competitive admissions. For schools where attendance is guaranteed based on where you live, Jenks is the best.  

Overall Jenks Public Schools is the best district in the state, very strong parent involvement, very well run system. Tulsa schools are good schools but have all the problems of large urban school districts. But within TPS Tulsa Washington (BTW) and the rest of the Tulsa magnet schools according to the federal API rankings are among the highest rated individual schools in the state. JPS is the highest rated large school district in the state and just won the national Malcom Baldridge Award for organizational excellence. The national Newsweek rankings of high schools also put both BTW and Jenks in the top 1% of high schools nationally. Edison in Tulsa (a partial magnet school) also does well in those rankings. Average ACT scores and the count of national merit scholars also support these being the best schools.

All of these rankings show that Owasso also has good schools, but is a step down from Jenks and Tulsa Magnet. Owasso does a bit better than BA and Union. For slightly smaller districts Sand Springs and Bixby also score pretty well. Union, while not bad, is surprisingly low and is scored quite a bit under what their reputation would tell you. I don’t mean to say that Union is bad, but for some reason is a step down from the other top districts. Tulsa Public Schools also has some really good charter schools.

http://www.sde.state.ok.us/test/API/api20061107.pdf

http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380

Mr. K and I both attended Union (me K-12 and him 7-12) and graduated from there.  That's where our kids will go as well.  We breezed through college and I believe that was to Union's credit.  I also student taught there as an intern and really liked what I saw.  

At the high school level the amount of freedom given was amazing compared to my friends at other schools.  I was very happy there and did well.  The school across the street from me, Cedar Ridge, is excellent and was recently given a state honor.

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Originally posted by osu9400

I live in Tulsa, but in the BA district. You can't go wrong with the big 3 -- BA, Jenks, Union. Jenks/Union  get a lot of pub for their athletics, but BA has a lot of good schools, especially for the young kids. BA's music and fine-arts programs are excellent. The high school band won the national championship last year, their cheer squads win very often as well. Tons of pride in those three school.

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To paraphrase a hackneyed expression, Broken Arrow's a fine town, but I wouldn't want to go to school there. The quality of education and the administration led me and my parents to determine that my personal educational goals were best fulfilled in Tulsa.

I went to TPS, (Byrd & Memorial) and breezed through college.  


(Of course that was 1973.)

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Originally posted by RecycleMichael

The best elementary school and the best high school in the region are both Tulsa Public.

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says who?

I went to TPS, (Foster & East Central) and breezed through college.

(Of course that was 2002.)

It simply comes down to the student. If the student wants to learn, then they'll get what they need regardless of the school.

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Originally posted by inteller

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Originally posted by RecycleMichael

The best elementary school and the best high school in the region are both Tulsa Public.

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says who?

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http://www.eisenhowerinternational.org/api.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington_High_School_(Tulsa)

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Originally posted by waterboy

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Originally posted by sweetpeamc

We are coming from Edmond, Oklahoma. Our son isn't of school age yet but we'd like to only move once and he will attend public school.

Thanks for your input!

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Heh, I know Edmond. You will love Jenks.

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exactly right.  Jenks received the malcolm baldridge award in 2005.  here is a profile of the their school system....

http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/baldrige_2005/jenks.htm

Good Luck with your move!

+1 for Bixby. I taught and coached there in the 80's.  It was good then, good now.