Oklahoma Schools: Better Than Ok!
Students reap a lot of positive aspects from Oklahoma Schools. According to the 2002-2004 Census, there are 1,816 schools, 619,226 students, and 38,983 teachers. With a 16:1 ratio of students to teachers, its no wonder that things are a lot more than OK for Oklahoma Schools students. The dropout rate for Oklahoma Schools is a low three.two% and the state boasts high good results for its students on assessment tests. Oklahoma also provides a special program that addresses an situation on the minds of most of the nomac drilling nation: childhood obesity. This plan is named the Farm-to-School system.
The Education Oversight Board for Oklahoma Schools reports that many schools successfully reached the boards Benchmark of 70% on standardized tests for the 04-05 school year. In total that year, the EOB recognized 688 Elementary Schools for 4th grade results, 404 for 5th grade outcomes, 476 K-8 Elementary, Middle, and Junior High schools for 7th grade results, and 176 of the exact same sorts of schools for performance on the 8th grade tests. The board reserved its highest accolades for the 40 Elementary and 2 Middle Oklahoma Schools that have reached this benchmark for each of the past five years.
On the other hand, the Office of Accountability, which also evaluates Oklahoma Schools, states, [we] have been reporting for several years now that Oklahomas students, even though occasionally creating minor gains in some locations, are at the exact same time losing ground to their national counterparts. Other agencies report that Oklahoma Schools score below the nation in most categories.
What Oklahoma Schools students are not gaining is far more weight. An impressive move to combat this issue inside the Oklahoma Schools is the Farm-to-School plan. The effective two-year pilot system was organized by the Oklahoma Food Policy Council, which is a joint project of the Kerr Center and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. The system educates kids about agriculture and nutrition and can consist of field trips to neighborhood farms. Not only does the plan help kids understand about health and nutrition, its also excellent for rural financial development. Researchers say that farm-to-school applications truly improve childrens nutrition, which can only benefit all these involved.
Plan targets are to offer fresh, high-top quality, locally grown fruits and vegetables to Oklahoma Schools cafeterias, and to get youngsters excited about consuming healthy by means of nutrition lessons. Other helpful activities incorporate cooking classes, farm visits, school gardens, and Ag-in-the-Classroom. State Representative Winchester states students diets could be drastically improved [by] adding fresh fruits and vegetables into [Oklahoma Schools] menus. Lack of wholesome fruits and vegetables in a childs everyday diet program contributes to the massive youth obesity and juvenile diabetes epidemics in our state. In 2004, Oklahoma Schools had 11.1% of high school students deemed overweight, with an extra 14.two% at threat. And, when it comes to meeting the nomac FDA guidelines of 5 or more fruits nomac drilling application or veggies a day, Oklahomans rank last in the nation. Fortunately, this generation of Oklahoma Schools students could turn that statistic around.
