Since 2020, Saint Louis University (SLU) has worked with YouGov to poll Missouri citizens on current issues in politics and education. We surveyed 900 likely Missouri voters from August 13–August 24, 2026 to inform stakeholders on public opinion on political and education-related policy issues. In this brief, we dive into the education-related results.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam—also known as The Nation’s Report Card—has been given to students since 1969. We discuss nationwide and Missouri-specific trends from the 2024 data release of 4th and 8th Grade Mathematics and Reading scores, and compare the results to the state’s own Missouri Assessment of Progress (MAP). Since 2019, the two sets of tests tell very different stories.

In this policy brief, we describe Missouri’s School Improvement Program (MSIP) and how it impacts public schools in the state. We also describe the State Board of Education’s role in MSIP and how Misosuri’s state accountability system compares to the federal accountability program.

In this policy brief, we take a look at the results of the 2019 edition of the NAEP. Unlike previous years, Missouri saw its scores drop, specifically in 4th grade reading. We examine how different groups of students in Missouri performed, as well as how Missouri compared to neighboring states and the nation as whole.

In this policy brief, we take a dive into the ACT results for Missouri’s class of 2019 and how the decreased participation rate impacted scores in Missouri.

In this policy brief, we take a look Missouri’s NAEP performance over the years and how it has remained mostly unchanged over the last 14 years. We compare Missouri’s results to National trends and look at how different students have performed.