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.)

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.

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.

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.

Each year, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provides data on the attendance rates of Missouri students. Here, we provide a brief overview of chronic absenteeism and updated attendance rates in Missouri in advance of our forthcoming policy brief. We also debut PRiME’s interactive maps, this one detailing the most recent proportional attendance rates by district.

To calculate school funding, Missouri currently uses a model that estimates the cost of adequately educating a child and subtracts out what can be raised locally through taxes to arrive at the total aid provided to a school. The current model was developed nearly 20 years ago in 2005. There is contention with a few key pieces of the funding formula, some of which were addressed this year with the passage of Senate Bill 727, and some that persist. 

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam has been given to students since 1969. This nationwide assessment produces important metrics about our country’s students. Here, we discuss nationwide and Missouri-specific trends from the 2024 data release.

As more school districts across Missouri adopt a four-day school week (4DSW), the debate over its effectiveness continues. Here, we summarize what we’ve learned about the 4DSW in Missouri.

In 2024, SLU and YouGov partnered to poll Missouri voters (once in February and once in August) and Missouri parents (in May) on education topics. Below, we cover three voter opinions that received strong consensus from Missouri voters and parents.

When researchers and policymakers examine student enrollment and demographic trends in Missouri, one common measure used to capture the socioeconomic status of a school’s student body is the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL). While this metric has been widely used, it often fails to accurately reflect family income and, as a result, can overestimate the true need within schools. This issue warrants further exploration, especially as it impacts key decisions about resource allocation and support for disadvantaged students.

Last week, we published an update of the Missouri MAP scores brief to reflect the most recent release of data for the 2023—24 school year. Scores on the Missouri MAP test were effectively flat from 2023 to 2024. Math scores have mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels. ELA scores have yet to recover, especially at the early grades, which remain at 2021 levels. This reflects a larger trend of declining early literacy rates, which have been on the decline since 2012.