How This Small Oklahoma School District Became One Of The State’s Top Performers The 74

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WARNER —  The banners stretch along the top of Warner Public Schools’ Event Center wall, each with the letter A as the centerpiece.

Every banner celebrates the 16 overall A grades that schools in the rural eastern Oklahoma district have received since 2013 on state report cards. A fresh one printed in 2025 signifies Warner’s high school and K-8 school were again among the top 5% highest-performing public schools in the state.

The A grades, though a heavy focus in the 800-student district, aren’t the point, Warner Superintendent David Vinson said. They’re a byproduct of students’ and teachers’ hard work. And if Warner can do it, he said, any district can.

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“You have to make sure your students understand the why,” Vinson said. “It’s about their education. It’s about bettering their lives.

It’s not about getting an A on the report card or about getting high marks as a school district. That’s a result or a fallout of them being high achievers individually.”

Public schools across Oklahoma are now implementing strategies Warner has been employing for years — a cellphone ban throughout the school day, frequent benchmark testing and tracking of students’ individual scores. The district changed its culture and policies than a decade ago after receiving disappointing results on state report cards.

The town of Warner, home to 1,500 residents and Connors State College, doesn’t have a wealth of industry to keep its school district flush with local tax revenue, Vinson said. State funding and community support for bond issues fill in the gap.

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About 60% of Warner students come from households at or near the federal poverty line, state records show. Many district students — 42% of whom are Native American, 31% white and 20% two or races — have parents who work in farming and ranching in the area or drive 20 minutes north to Muskogee for industry jobs, Vinson said.

Not that he particularly pays attention to demographics. Those details, Vinson said, “tend to be used as excuses.”

High academic expectations and strict discipline are core to the district’s success, he said. Principals are quick to handle behavioral issues, leaving teachers free to teach and students better able to learn without disruptions.

The principal’s office is not a “revolving door,” he said. Any student sent in must leave with a consequence.

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“I think education in general across the board has lost sight of that mentality, has lost sight of that philosophy,” Vinson said. “And that’s why you have schools that are in chaos, and you have entire schools scoring 0% proficient on assessments because the school has become so chaotic that teachers can’t teach and kids can’t learn.

And there are just as smart of kids in those schools as there are in my school. They’re just not being afforded that opportunity to learn like our kids are.”

Small behavioral problems are addressed consistently, and big incidents are punished “severely,” he said.

In Warner, that includes the rare use of corporal punishment, a method of discipline that than 100 Oklahoma districts still permit. Simply having it on the table as an option, Vinson said, usually is enough to discourage most students from bad behavior.

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While administrators handle discipline, teachers are expected to maximize every minute of their class time, a concept known in Warner as “bell-to-bell teaching.” That means no movies and no downtime, said Charla Jackson, the district’s curriculum director and elementary counselor.

Middle and high school students are discouraged from mingling in the hallways during passing periods. Instead they’re expected to hustle to their lockers and then to their next class, where a bellringer assignment is usually waiting. They’re expected to read a book if they finish their classwork early.

Literacy is a major emphasis in Warner, Jackson said. Several Warner Elementary teachers have completed in-depth training on the science of reading, and the school provides reading interventionists and tutoring for students who need extra help.

“They are the experts,” Jackson said of Warner’s teachers. “They are the ones making the difference. We just try to support them and allow them to do their job. So, that’s first and foremost.”

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High morale keeps teacher turnover low, Jackson said. Class sizes, though increasing with Warner’s enrollment growth, max out at about 24 students per classroom.

But, Warner isn’t immune from the teacher shortage impacting public schools across Oklahoma.

About half of the teachers at Warner High School entered the classroom through non-traditional means, like adjunct teaching and alternative or emergency certification, Vinson said. The district tries to support those educators with training, pre-written curriculum plans and co-teaching hours with a veteran teacher.

Having fewer classroom disruptions, too, “just makes everybody a better teacher,” he said.

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Several district teachers told Oklahoma Voice that behavioral issues are rarely a problem in their classrooms, but when they do occur, school administrators readily step in.

When asked what sets Warner apart, kindergarten teacher Lisa Lee pointed to elementary Principal Alan Gordon’s desk.

“This man right here, he’s great,” Lee said. “The administration here, it just makes you feel good. You know what I mean?

Like they’re backing us. They believe in us. They push us, and that makes a huge difference.”

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Fourth-grade math teacher Pam White said she was ready to quit teaching before she came to Warner Elementary five years ago. White, 65, is eligible to retire but has chosen not to “because I love this school so much.”

She said the supportive administration has been “huge.”

“They’re in our classrooms,” she said. “They’ll take care of problems immediately.”

During a visit to White’s classroom, students in her afternoon math class were equally enthusiastic about their school, complimenting the quality of their teachers, school staff and principal.

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But, Warner didn’t always have this culture of success. The turning point was 2012. That year, the district scored straight C’s on state report cards.

Vinson, then in his first year as superintendent, sent an email to Warner families to inform them “we are not pleased with the overall grade on these report cards for our schools.” The district’s administrators and teachers were already implementing changes, he wrote in the email. He still keeps a copy.

That’s when Warner adopted a structured and disciplined culture, banned cellphones, started adhering to bell-to-bell teaching and aimed to have 90% of students make a proficient score on state tests.

The following year, the district met or exceeded the statewide average on nearly every state exam.

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That trajectory continued over the following decade, despite state test scoring becoming rigorous in 2017 and COVID-19 interrupting schooling in 2020. In 2025, Warner students scored above the state average in every tested grade level, the district’s report card shows.

Families in the area have taken notice. While the town of Warner has experienced little population change, its school district has grown from 600 students at the start of the turnaround to than 800 today. Student transfers are a major source of the spike.

“I think a big thing is we established a culture here where kids want to succeed,” middle and high school counselor Misty Durrett said. “It’s something they take pride in.

“They know our ranking. They know where we stand. They want to maintain that.”

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It’s not all structure and discipline, Vinson said. School still needs to be fun.

That’s why Warner has expanded extracurricular activities, electives and class options available to students. It’s added a competition choir, an art program, boys and girls wrestling, and a high school construction class, where students are building a house that should be ready to sell this spring.

Students on the high school racing team design and build a dirt-track racing car that Vinson drives in competitions on the team’s behalf.

School spirit events, like Homecoming, consume entire school days. With the winter holidays approaching, the interior of every Warner school is decorated for Christmas with lights, trees and door decals.

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“You have to create those opportunities for kids to enjoy school,” Vinson said. “It can’t be structure, discipline, learning, structure, discipline, learning 170 days a year.”

Oklahoma Voicice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions:(email protected).

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