Missouri Education System: A Comprehensive Overview

The Missouri education system encompasses a wide range of institutions, from public and private schools to colleges, universities, and public library systems. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) oversees the administration of primary and secondary public schools.

Structure of the Education System

Education is compulsory for children between the ages of seven and seventeen in Missouri. The system is commonly divided into three tiers: elementary school, middle school or junior high school, and high school. The public school system includes kindergarten through 12th grade.

School District Territories

District territories can be complex. Elementary, middle, and junior high schools within a single district may feed into high schools in another district.

Public Schools

Missouri's public school system serves more than 879,000 students, prekindergarten through grade 12, across 554 school districts and charter schools. These districts vary significantly in size, ranging from fewer than 20 to more than 23,000 students. The vast majority of school districts are fully accredited by the State Board of Education.

School Accreditation and Performance

Selecting a School: Missouri does not directly rank or compare public school districts or school buildings. However, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education compiles an "annual report card" about every district, building and charter school. Use this report to find important statistics about specific districts or schools.

Missouri School Rankings Project

MoSchoolRankings.org provides the latest 2023-2024 performance data for every Missouri school and district, along with updated spending data at the district level. This project was launched in response to DESE’s failure to perform one of its most basic functions. The data set includes nearly 500 variables for each district available for download. The DESE accounting manual can be accessed on the site.Each student performance metric is given a grade of A through F. The grades are combined to produce a grade point average, or GPA. Each school receives a GPA and is then ranked based on that GPA. The performance rankings are based on data from the 2018-19 and 2020-2021 school year and are calculated using several performance metrics that measure student performance. For each school or district, the percentage of low-income enrollment was multiplied by the baseline rate and subtracted from the baseline. The result is the school’s (or district’s) predicted score. If a school’s (or district’s) expected score is higher than its actual score, it underperformed. The Missouri School Rankings Project is led by Show-Me Institute’s Director of Research and Education Policy Dr. Susan Pendergrass.

School Choice

Parents need accurate information to make informed decisions about which school will best serve their children. The ability to compare individual schools also allows families who are relocating to make informed decisions about which districts or school boundaries to move into.

Accountability is vital to standards-based education reform. Publicly ranking schools make it more difficult to ignore poorly performing schools and schools whose performance is declining. The public sector should make it easy for citizens to see how their money is being spent. The powers that be shouldn’t tailor spending numbers to include some things and exclude others.

Charter Schools

Charter schools are independent public schools that operate with fewer restrictions than traditional public schools, offering another public school choice for families, particularly in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas.

Online Learning

The Missouri Course Access and Virtual School Program (MOCAP) offers a catalog of virtual online courses for students. Beginning with the 2019-20 school year, students are able to take an entire course from any Internet-connected computer, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. MOCAP's mission is to offer Missouri students equal access to a wide range of high quality courses, flexibility in scheduling, and interactive online learning.

Private and Homeschool Options

Missouri does not accredit, regulate, or monitor private or parochial schools or homeschool options. Any family may choose to homeschool.

Homeschooling Regulations

Homeschooling in Missouri is not regulated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The state does not provide any monetary assistance, curriculum, or materials to homeschoolers. Parents who choose to homeschool must provide 1,000 hours of instruction during the school year, keep a daily log, and maintain a sample of academic work. Homeschool students frequently attend local colleges and universities.

Higher Education

Public colleges and universities in Missouri are administered by the Missouri Department of Higher Education. The state system includes 13 four-year universities and 20 two-year colleges, including the University of Missouri System.

University of Missouri System

The University of Missouri System includes the flagship institution in Columbia, as well as campuses in St. Louis, Kansas City, and the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Other Public Universities

Other public universities not part of the University of Missouri system include Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri State University in Springfield, Truman State University in Kirksville, Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, and the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.

Private Universities

Private universities in Missouri include Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, Maryville University, and Rockhurst University in Kansas City.

Missouri Learning Standards

The Missouri Learning Standards define the knowledge and skills students need in each grade level and course for success in college, other post-secondary training and careers. These expectations are aligned to the Show-Me Standards, which define what all Missouri high school graduates should know and be able to do.

Development of Standards

In January 1996, Missouri adopted the Show-Me Standards, a demanding set of content and process standards. Grade-level expectations (GLEs) were then developed to provide grade by grade targets for instruction for teachers. Those expectations were revised regularly based on teacher feedback and new research. As End-of-Course (EOC) assessments were developed at the high school level, Course-level expectations (CLEs) were created to provide teachers with course-specific objectives.

Key Features

The Missouri Learning Standards help ensure students learn basic and higher-order skills, including problem-solving and critical thinking. The standards are relevant to the real world and reflect the knowledge and skills students need to achieve their goals. The Missouri Learning Standards give school administrators, teachers, parents and students a road map for learning expectations in each grade and course. The Missouri Learning Standards do not dictate curriculum. Local districts and schools make their own decisions about curriculum, instructional strategies, materials and textbooks.

Core Subject Areas

The Missouri Learning Standards cover various subjects, including:

English Language Arts: Assessed standards implemented in the 2016-2017 academic year and assessed beginning in the 2017-2018 school year.
Mathematics: Revised standards implemented in the 2016-2017 academic year and assessed beginning in the 2017-2018 school year.
Science: MAP Grade-Level and End-of-Course assessments are based on these standards, with field testing in 2017-2018 and operational assessment beginning in 2018-2019.
Social Studies: Standards implemented in the 2016-2017 academic year, assessed in Government and HS American History (optional) EOC assessments.
Personal Finance: Updated standards implemented in the 2019-2020 school year.
Computer Science: New Computer Science Performance Standards implemented in the 2019-2020 school year.

Fine Arts

The Missouri Learning Standards also cover fine arts, including:

Dance
Media Arts
Music
Theater
Visual Arts

Alternate Assessment

The MAP-A assessments continue to be based on alternate standards.

Other Areas

Non-assessed standards include:

World Languages
Health/Physical Education
School Counseling

Student Performance and Demographics

Minorities comprise almost one-third of the student population in Missouri, and English-language learners account for about 4%. Missouri had nearly 12,000 highly qualified special education teachers.

National Rankings

News & World Report provide a snapshot of how students are performing in each state. Eighth grade students in Missouri rank No. 28 for math and No. 34 for reading. Missouri ranks No. 38 and earns a C- grade.

Teacher-Student Ratio

In 2000, Missouri’s student/teacher ratio was 14:1.

Teacher Qualifications and Salaries

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), over 60% of teachers working possess a master’s degree or higher in the 2022-2023 school year. Teachers with a master’s degree consistently earn more than those with only a bachelor’s degree. Teachers with a master’s degree and fewer than five years of teaching earned almost $38,984.

Graduation Requirements and Assessments

Missouri high school students must earn at least 24 credits to graduate, including a half credit in personal finance. The state assesses students' knowledge via the Missouri Assessment Program. Students may join the LifeSmarts program, which develops their consumer and marketplace skills, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education.

State Oversight and Accountability

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is led by the Commissioner of Education, who is appointed by the Missouri State Board of Education. The board is responsible for the supervision of instruction in public schools. The Missouri Accountability Portal is the state's spending transparency database.

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