Since 2019 the PRiME Center has issued reports that feature the highest growth schools in Missouri, translating state growth data into a scale that parents, educators and policymakers can use. Our recent Special Edition of the PRiME Growth Report Series examines the average PRiME Growth Scores of schools since COVID, over the three periods where we have full data: the 2021–22, 2022–23, and 2023–24 school years.

On July 9, 2025, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed Senate Bill 68 into law, enacting a statewide ban on electronic communication devices in Missouri public and charter schools beginning with the 2025–26 academic year. This bill comes in response to growing concerns among Missourians about technology in the classroom and reflects a broader desire to promote educational attainment, safety, and effective working environments for employees in Missouri schools.

When we talk about how students are doing in subjects like reading and math, it’s more helpful to look at how much they grow over time rather than just where they stand at one moment. This report continues the PRiME Center’s efforts to highlight Missouri’s excellent schools by examining student growth in the state's most rural schools over the last three years.

In Missouri, student homelessness is not just a growing crisis—it’s an urgent education policy issue. According to our new report, more than 34,000 students in Missouri’s public schools were identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2022–23 academic year. That’s 1 in every 25 students, far higher than the national average. While Missouri makes up just 1.8% of the U.S. population, it accounts for 2.5% of all students identified as homeless nationwide—an overrepresentation that demands serious attention. 

The US Department of Education released a report yesterday by, among others at the Regional Education Laboratory (REL) Central, PRiME’s own Kathryn Coleman, Collin Hitt, and Saint Louis University School of Education Dean, Gary Ritter. 

The report examined features of early-career teacher mentoring for the purposes of understanding its effects on teacher retention within schools. The study was requested by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MO DESE) toward the goal of improving teacher retention in Missouri.

The study found that more than half of first-year teachers met with their mentors multiple times per month, but the amount of time and specific activities of the meetings varied widely.

To read more, find the full report here.

When it comes to student achievement in Missouri, the story depends on which test you’re reading. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Missouri students—like students across the country—have faced significant academic challenges. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as the "Nation’s Report Card," tells us that reading and math scores in Missouri have dropped dramatically for both 4th and 8th graders. But a look at the state’s own MAP (Missouri Assessment Program) test results paints a different picture: only slight declines, and in some cases, no decline at all.

Each year, Missouri gives standardized tests to all public school kids grades 3 through 8 to gauge their proficiency in math and English. In the 2023–2024 school year, only a tenth of KIPP Wonder’s kids who took the tests scored “proficient” in English. That’s 31 points below the state average. But it’s just a snapshot—and, in large part, due to factors outside any school’s control, such as community and family resources. Missouri also calculates a growth metric, one that Collin Hitt, the executive director of Saint Louis University’s education policy group, PRiME Center, calls “the best in the country.” It asks the question: How far did students move forward in a subject, regardless of where they started, and in comparison to other similarly situated students? And on that metric, KIPP Wonder showed the second largest average leap in English of all public elementary schools in Missouri, according to a PRiME analysis. (They were second only to a school in the Ozarks.)

Missouri is home to 37 Charter Local Education Agencies (LEAs)—20 in Kansas City and 17 in St. Louis. In 2024, Missouri charter schools educated around 25,000 students. Charter schools are public schools, free from tuition and fees, that operate in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas of Missouri. Charter schools are sponsored or “authorized” not by the state, but rather by an entity that grants a charter and provides accountability. There are currently seven charter school sponsors in Missouri—Saint Louis University is one of them. More information about Missouri charter schools can be found at https://dese.mo.gov/quality-schools/charter-schools.

The definition of rural varies depending on the source. In today’s blog post, we discuss common definitions of “rural,” when they are best used, and why picking the right definition matters.

In 2022, 95% of teens reported having access to a smartphone, a more than 20 percentage point increase from 2014–15 (73%). According to the National Education Association (NEA), these devices are taking a toll on students’ mental health as well as their ability to focus in class. Consequently, 15 states have already passed laws or enacted policies that ban or restrict the use of cell phones in schools statewide and Missouri lawmakers are considering following suit. When surveyed last Fall (2024), a large majority of Missouri voters reported support for prohibiting high school students from accessing their cell phones both during regular school hours (72%) and during class (79%).

The average starting teacher salary in Missouri in FY 2022–23 was $36,829, which ranked 50th in the nation. In June 2020 and August 2023, we asked voters if they believe public school teacher salaries should increase, decrease, or stay the same. In 2020, almost three quarters of respondents (74%) claimed salaries should increase, and this response increased to 81% by August 2023

A recent poll suggests that Missourians across party, age, and education lines favor requiring all six-year-olds to attend school. Missouri—along with 14 other states—does not require this.

This week in neighboring Illinois, a bill to ban cell phones from classrooms unanimously passed in the Senate. The bill, advocated for by Illinois’ Governor J.B. Pritzker, now moves to the House. If passed, they would join the more than 40% of states who have laws or policies restricting cell phone use in schools. Missouri has similar legislation in the works, and voters are in support.

This research was presented at the Mapping Spaces, Embodying Territories 2025 Conference at Saint Louis University on April 4, 2025.

Free and Reduced-Price Lunch (FRL) can be a bit of a buzzword in the education space. In today’s blog post, we dispel common misconceptions about the program, and answer some FAQs.

For years, President Donald Trump has campaigned on, among other things, his intentions to dissolve the Department of Education. In January 2025, two bills seeking to do just that, were introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R.369 and H.R.899). Just yesterday, Trump signed an executive order that would begin eliminating the federal Department of Education, citing poor test scores as a key justification for the move.

The newest data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education finds that more than one in five K–12 students were chronically absent in the 2023–24 school year. From 2019 to 2024, nearly 91% of Missouri districts (499 total) have experienced a rise in chronic absenteeism—defined as missing at least ten percent of scheduled school days. Here, we explore key trends from the most recent Missouri attendance data.

The results are in: Missouri voters want later high school start times.