In this policy brief, we describe Missouri’s current accountability system for traditional public and public charter schools—Missouri School Improvement Plan (MSIP) 6—and how it differs from the prior version known as MSIP 5. We add context by detailing federal school accountability system requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which also impacts the work of schools in Missouri.

UPDATED: In this brief, we examine the relationship between changes in the elementary age population in St. Louis City, school closures, school choice, and access to public elementary school options across the city.

This brief examines Missouri’s 2022 NAEP results, which are the first look into NAEP performance after the pandemic. We focus on Missouri’s performance changes over time, gaps between student groups, and comparison to national trends.

This brief considers the demand and supply sides of private school choice in Missouri and how the opinions of voters, parents, and private school leaders diverge on the MOScholars Program.

This brief describes Missouri’s approach to reach its “Big Goal” to have 60% of its working-age adults attain a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2025.

This brief highlight trends from the the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Long-Term Trend (LTT) results, which exclusively sampled a nationally-representative group of 9-year-old students and was intended to measure achievement changes during the pandemic in mathematics and reading. To contextualize, we examine the trends in MAP test scores for Missouri's 4th graders (typically 9-year-old students).

UPDATED: This brief examines changes to enrollment in schools under the Archdiocese of St. Louis, describing research on enrollment changes over the last ten years from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) and using data from the Private School Universe Survey (PSS) from the U.S. Department of Education over the last 20 years. We describe trends in St. Louis and other major archdioceses and conclude with highlights of the current strategic planning processes for the Archdiocese of St. Louis and other large archdioceses

This brief examines the state’s minimum teacher salary and the new proposed plan to increase the state’s minimum salary. Specifically, we examine the Governor’s proposal to increase from $25,000 to $38,000.

In this brief, we describe Missouri’s certification reciprocity policy, alternative pathways to certification, and potential “blocks” in the pipeline due to salary.

In this brief, we describe the changes to Missouri’s public school enrollment prior to and after the COVID-19-induced shutdown of 2020. We pay particular attention to the changes in enrollment by grade level and regionally, as well as putting Missouri’s changes in context with national statistics.

In this brief, we describe the parts of the state that will have students who are potentially eligible to use the new Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program. We pay particular attention to those parts of the state that are ineligible due to the program’s geographic and population limitations.

In this brief, we use data from the October 2021 SLU/YouGov Poll to present evidence outlining differences in voter opinion by demographic factors such as voter race and political affiliation.

In this brief, we provide an overview of how federally mandated special education services translate to virtual educational environments and examine how Missouri districts communicated information regarding these services in their Fall 2020 reopening plans.

In this brief, we unpack the Missouri Growth Model used to calculate school and district growth scores. We explain how the model works and clarify what it does and does not tell us about school quality.

In this brief, we use data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) from 2009-2020 to determine the impact of four-day school weeks on teacher recruitment.

In this brief, we utilize statewide school-level data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) from 2016-2020 to examine free and reduced-price school meal programs.

In this brief, I describe the take-up of early childhood education funding from Missouri House Bill 1689. While public pre-K enrollment expanded in Missouri prior to the pandemic, many school districts have not leveraged this newly available state funding to support pre-K growth

The Policy Research in Missouri Education (PRiME) Center analyzed school district reopening plans in fall 2020 to understand how Missouri districts responded to English Language Learners.

This policy brief chronicles the birth, adoption, and expiration of MoPTA and the educational policy dynamics that prevented the stable adoption of the assessment. We summarize our complete analysis which finds that MoPTA serves as an illustrative study for how teacher education policy delivery is formed and implemented within a network of interdependent actors.

In this brief, we use data from a statewide sample of Missouri traditional and charter school districts’ 2020-21 reopening plans. We describe the characteristics of districts that planned to provide students with devices and internet access for distanced learning.