Maryetta School is located near the end of the Trail of Tears in Adair county s Green Country, a very rural, economically depressed area of northeastern Oklahoma. Because of their Native American background, many of the families speak broken English, and many still speak the Cherokee language. Student performance on the Oklahoma Core Curriculum tests showed Maryetta students scored below the state average in almost every area tested. Adair county has the lowest per capita income in Oklahoma. The total unemployment rate for the district is 17 percent.
Indications are that current unemployment has approximately doubled within the past two years.
Maryetta School District is deep within this poverty zone. District revenue from local and county funding amounted to 7.2 percent as compared to a state average of 32 percent. Only 26.9 percent of high school graduates in Adair county go on to college, the lowest percentage of any county in Oklahoma. Students grow up in undereducated homes with few books, newspapers, and literature. Ninety-two percent of the cases in Adair County receiving assistance through the Department of Human Services are single parent families.