Our 2023 Missouri Education Profile is here.

Highlights from the first full school year After COVID-19 Closures

We used data from the 2021-22 school year to cover topics including Missouri’s teacher workforce, student enrollment and attendance, test scores, college outcomes, and education funding. This profile also includes a special SLU/YouGov Poll feature identifying Missouri voters’ opinions on education issues.

Key takeaways include:

• Missouri is hiring more new teachers, but fewer candidates are completing teacher preparation programs.

• Student attendance rates dropped to the lowest point in the last decade, while student discipline rates rose to their highest levels in the same period.

• Achievement gaps in state test scores remain unchanged, as the proportion of students who scored proficient/advanced was higher for White students than it was for Black students, by roughly 30 percentage points.

By: Ashley Donaldson Burle, Mel Fenske, Duncan Carson, and Rich Hall, PH.D.