Unity Learning Academy

Unity Learning Academy is an elementary school in Tulsa, Oklahoma that serves 271 students in grades PK-5. The school is part of the Tulsa school district, which is ranked 387 out of 452 districts in the state and has a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger. Over the past decade, Unity Learning Academy has consistently ranked in the bottom 10-15% of elementary schools in Oklahoma.

Unity Learning Academy faces significant challenges, including extremely high chronic absenteeism rates ranging from 34.4% to 40.8% in recent years, compared to the Tulsa district average of 19.0%. Students at Unity also perform poorly on state assessments, with only 8-20% proficient in English Language Arts, Math, and Science in 2024-2025, compared to 13-17% for Tulsa and 24-35% statewide. The school has an extremely high percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 90.76% to 97.79% in recent years, indicating a very high-poverty student population. Despite spending more per student than nearby schools, Unity Learning Academy is not seeing commensurate improvements in student achievement.

While the nearby schools, such as Felicitas Mendez International School and Sequoyah Elementary School, also serve high-poverty populations, they generally outperform Unity Learning Academy on key metrics like test scores and chronic absenteeism. This suggests that there may be opportunities to learn from the practices and strategies of these relatively higher-performing schools to help drive improvement at Unity Learning Academy.