Oklahoma Data Matrix Offers Insights Into State Assessments

The Oklahoma State Department of Education recently released state assessment data for schools statewide. 

The information is key for a variety of stakeholders working to help schools and students recover from the pandemic. 

Officials hope the new data tools will help parents understand how students performed in recent years.  

It comes with a cautionary note. According to Oklahoma State Department of Education assistant deputy superintendent of assessments, accountability, data systems and research Bryan Koerner, the 2021 test scores can’t be taken at face value because of how different every school and every student was impacted during the pandemic

“Our goal as a state is to make everything as transparent as possible to a variety of stakeholders, researchers, parents, classroom teachers, principals,” Koerner said. 

There are a couple different websites to access this data.

Oklahoma School Report Cards’ website has data that shows school and district level information. 

On the site, you can compare your child’s test scores to their classmates.

However, state assessment experts are cautioning everyone against making broad comparisons because the pandemic impacted kids, classroom and school in different ways. 

Some kids took assessments during the spring. Enrollment figures also changed in some schools. 

“We as a state, we’ve been messaging the importance of understanding participation rates first before making a comparison, even within the same county,” Koerner said.

Steps on how to access the data

Click on Spring 2021 Assessment Data.

Click the Oklahoma Data Matrix link.

Click Oklahoma Data Matrix again.

Click Visualization.

Arrive at a state map of Oklahoma with interactive tools. You can sort and filter data on a variety of factors. 

The state said the data could be used by districts to identify which kids need the most help.

“They could look at individual students, they could look at groups of students, they could look at grade levels of students to determine where pockets of unfinished learning might be,” Koerner said. “And then use that data to help accelerate any unfinished learning at the beginning of this current school year.”

Assessment data for 2021 will be added to the website early next week.