In 2025, NAEP administered its quadrennial Long-Term Trends Assessment for 9- and 13-year-olds. Today, we are going to be looking at three things we learned about 9-year-olds from the recently released results.

In 2025, NAEP administered its quadrennial Long-Term Trends Assessment for 9- and 13-year-olds. Today, we are going to be looking at three things we learned about 13-year-olds from the recently released results.

St. Louis County, Missouri is divided into 22 regular school districts that vary widely in geographic size and student enrollment, from 668 students in Valley Park to 18,595 students in Rockwood R-6 (2025–26). Student demographics and funding also differ starkly across districts. Lindbergh serves a population that is 2.7% Black, while the student population in Riverview Gardens is 96.5% Black (2024–25). And while Jennings and Clayton both serve just over 2,000 students, Jennings had $8,731 to spend per student in 2024–25, while Clayton spent $24,862. What explains the number of districts and the disparities between them?

PRiME’s Executive Director Collin Hitt and PRiME contributor, Dr. Andrew Camp, spoke on “The Education Gadfly Show” to discuss their new Fordham education report on the Missouri charter school funding gap. The podcast is hosted by co-writer David Griffith and Mike Petrill. The report and podcast focuses on Missouri House Bill 1552 which attempted to close the funding gap between public and charter schools. The podcast examines how funding impacts students, staffing, and student achievement.

PRiME Center’s executive director Dr. Collin Hitt and Dr. David Griffith from Thomas B. Fordham Institute addressed the unsustainable funding model for Missouri’s public schools in a recent op-ed for the Missouri Independent. They highlight the disparity in funding between district public schools and charter public schools. The authors also discuss what solutions could remedy this imbalance.

There are 23 geographic school districts across St. Louis City and County, and district boundary lines can determine which students have access to educational opportunity in our region. Per pupil spending in 2024–25 ranged from $8,731 per year in Jennings (0.4% White) to $24,862 per year in Clayton (61.2% White). Why this stunning disparity? Past local and federal policies prevented Black families in St. Louis from buying homes and building wealth, and our dependence on local property taxes to fund schools ensures past housing discrimination leaves a legacy today.

The PRiME Center has just released the education results from the August 2026 SLU/YouGov Poll. Here are three key takeaways from those results: Missouri voters like the A-F grading scale, most Missouri districts don’t offer paid parental leave to teachers, but most Missourians wish they did, and Missouri consistently wants to see teacher salaries increase.

As Missouri students start a new school year, many will find familiar faces missing from the front of the classroom. This is because teacher turnover in the state remains stubbornly high – more than twice the national average. 

Teacher turnover in Missouri is at 14.6 percent, according to research from the PRiME Center. Meanwhile, the national average is roughly 7 percent.  

In an op-ed for The Kansas City Star, PRiME Center’s executive director Collin Hitt talks about the top four changes in Missouri education that the PRiME team is keeping an eye on this school year. This includes educational trends post-COVID, four-day school week, homeschooling, and a new accountability system.  

Here we report on the percent of students who are scoring at the proficient or advanced levels in ELA and math, for schools serving elementary and middle-grade students.

In this third blog in a four-part series, we examine demographic trends from fall 2019 through fall 2024 across five types of public schools in St. Louis City.

In this second blog of a four-part series, we examine enrollment trends from fall 2020 through fall 2025 across five types of public schools in St. Louis City

As concerns grow and information comes out about the dangers of GAI, policymakers, educators, and caregivers continue to look for ways to support all students in a technology-ridden world. 

Average scale scores in Mathematics took a more significant hit than ELA scores over the course of the pandemic (2020–2021), although in 2021, both subjects hit a low across all grades.

Missouri has more emergent bilingual students enrolled in public schools than ever before. The total count is nearly 40,000 as of 2024 – an increase of 28 percent since 2017. Are the state’s public schools ready to meet their needs? 

On January 13, 2026, Governor Michael Kehoe signed Executive Order 26-01. This executive order directs the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to create a new accountability system for schools in Missouri. The order requires the new system to include an A–F school and district grading framework. DESE must outline new guidelines for the A-F system for elementary, middle, and high schools.

House Bill 22-30, proposed by State Representative Tricia Byrnes, would limit screen time to 45 minutes per day in kindergarten through 5th grade. The bill also mandates an increase in paper assignments and textbooks. 70% of assignments would need to be completed through paper and pencil. Additionally, students would be required to have dedicated handwriting practice and cursive instruction in grades two through five. The bill states that cursive supports letter recognition, decoding, orthographic mapping, reading fluency, phonological awareness, and more.

In 2025, fifth and sixth graders scored higher in ELA than they did in 2024. These gains are important to note as remaining grades (3, 4, 7, and 8) saw ELA scores decrease or flatline in the same period.