BackgroundChecks.org recently announced the 2020 Top School District Rankings for every state in the US. The analysis covers a variety of metrics for over 10,000 schools, highlighting the districts that have produced and fostered the highest-quality educational environments for its students.
According to a news release, compared to other states, Missouri is in the middle of the pack in terms of public-education quality, earning a “C” grade in the 2019 Quality Counts report card. However, you wouldn’t know it by looking at the state’s five best school districts, all of which maintain a consistently high level of performance.
The top five districts in the state of Missouri are:
1. Kirkwood R-7
2. Lindbergh Schools
3. Ladue
4. Clayton and Ozark R-6
Other districts in the KMMO listening area ranked in the Top 100 include: No. 23 is Sedalia 200; Warrensburg R-6 is tied with 10 other districts at No. 30; No. 51 is Marceline; Cole Camp R-1 and Carrollton R-7 are tied for No. 57 with nine other districts; Odessa R-7 comes in at No. 70; Knob Noster R-8 is No. 72; and Chillicothe R-2 is tied for No. 84 with 10 other districts.
Methodology
The following variables contributed to the ranking: number of students (K-12); graduation rate; school funding per student; student-to-teacher ratio; percent of students scoring above proficient in standardized state Math test; and percent of students scoring above proficient in standardized state Reading and Language test. Data from a total of 10,247 public school districts were used to compute a score for each school district. Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming were omitted due to lack of sufficient data.
The Kirkwood School District comprises five elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school, serving an enrollment of 5,700 students. Students of the district regularly earn test scores that are among the highest in the state while graduating at a rate of 99 percent.
Lindbergh is a large district, with over 7,100 students attending one of 11 different campuses. The district’s schools have received a generous number of awards and achievements, including six National Ribbon School honors.
Ladue School District, comprising seven schools and an early childhood center in the city of St. Louis, is an ethnically-diverse district that regularly manages a graduation rate of over 90 percent.
Headquartered in Clayton, the district comprises six schools with an enrollment of around 2,800. A remarkable 21 Clayton High School students were named National Merit Scholars in 2020.
In the Ozark School District, comprising seven schools, students consistently perform at a high academic level, which is seen in the 97.2 percent graduation rate, 22.6 average ACT score and 53 percent of students that qualified for an A+ scholarship.