Academic Growth in Rural Schools: A Special Edition of PRiME’s Growth Reports

Andrew M. Camp, Ph.D., Courtney Vahle, Ed.D., Collin Hitt, Ph.D., and Lucas Koch

In this special report, the PRiME Center identifies, recognizes, and celebrates the highest performing schools in the state’s most rural communities. Rather than rank schools according to standardized test scores, the PRiME Center’s popular Growth reports illustrate how much students grew over time. By this standard, we can recognize the most effective schools in the state – the ones that help students achieve the most over a set period of time.

Key Points

• This report takes a look at student growth in Missouri’s most rural schools.

• For this report, scores at 414 schools from 261 districts as serving the most rural communities in the state were evaluated. 

• Using Growth Scores is important in making fair comparisons between schools and allows us to have better estimates of how well schools are doing at promoting student learning over time. 

• Growth is a superior measurement compared to proficiency rates or standardized test scores. Proficiency rates or standardized test scores can give us a snapshot of what a student knows at the time of the test, but do not really capture how much a student has grown in any given year.

• Schools appearing on these three-year lists have demonstrated consistent excellence in supporting student growth over multiple years—a strong indicator of effective, sustained instructional practices.

Vahle, C., Camp, A., Hitt, C., & Koch, L. (2025). Academic growth in rural schools: A special edition of PRiME’s growth reports. Policy Research in Missouri Education, 8(6). Saint Louis University. www.primecenter.org/growth-reports-database/rural-growth-2026