The following paper reports on variation in student demographics and outcomes in St. Louis’ public school system.

In this report, we use the PRiME Growth Score, a translation of state-calculated growth scores from the Missouri Growth Model, to highlight the schools achieving the top student growth while serving high concentrations of low-income students. This report focuses on the highest-growth schools serving the highest proportion of students eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch, those where the student body eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch (FRL) is in the fourth quartile. We rank top-growth schools in both English language arts and math and divide the rankings according to three school types.

This Evidence PRiMER explains the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP )and then describes the existing research on the effect of CEP adoption on test scores, attendance, and behavior.