McAlester

Five schools in McAlester serve students from kindergarten through grade 12: Will Rogers Elementary School (K–2), Puterbaugh Upper Elementary School (grades 3–4), Parker Intermediate Center (grades 5–6), Randy Hughes Middle School (grades 7–8), and McAlester High School (grades 9–12). Together, they enroll 2,779 students. The clearest area-wide concern is that scores fell across every subject with comparable results: all 11 school-subject comparisons available in both years declined from 2024–25 to 2025–26.

Parker Intermediate Center stands out in the latest results, scoring 33% in math and 35% in science—11 and 5 points above the next-highest school, respectively—and beating the state by 8 points in math and 5 in science. McAlester High School leads ELA at 38%, 12 points above the state, but has the lowest math result (15%, 10 points below the state) and science result (8%, 22 points below). ELA is lowest at both Randy Hughes Middle School and Puterbaugh Upper Elementary School, at 17% each. Because the schools serve different grades, all-grade scores are broad signals rather than direct like-for-like rankings.

Average ELA and math scores across schools with results each fell 4 points year over year, to 25% and 23%; the science average dropped 11 points, to 24%. Science was the widest group-level gap from the state: 6 points below, compared with 1 point in ELA and 3 in math. One positive counterpoint is McAlester High School’s 2024–25 graduation rate of 81%, 3 points above the state; its 2025–26 chronic absenteeism was 37%, however, versus 16% statewide. All five schools’ 2025–26 absenteeism rates exceeded the state rate. In 2024–25, free/reduced lunch eligible shares ranged from 59% at McAlester High School to 79% at Will Rogers Elementary School; student-teacher ratios ranged from 14.2 to 17. SchoolDigger’s percentile ranking for McAlester High School also fell from the 82nd percentile in 2023–24 to the 44th in 2025–26.