The average starting teacher salary in Missouri in FY 2022–23 was $36,829, which ranked 50th in the nation. In June 2020 and August 2023, we asked voters if they believe public school teacher salaries should increase, decrease, or stay the same. In 2020, almost three quarters of respondents (74%) claimed salaries should increase, and this response increased to 81% by August 2023

A recent poll suggests that Missourians across party, age, and education lines favor requiring all six-year-olds to attend school. Missouri—along with 14 other states—does not require this.

This week in neighboring Illinois, a bill to ban cell phones from classrooms unanimously passed in the Senate. The bill, advocated for by Illinois’ Governor J.B. Pritzker, now moves to the House. If passed, they would join the more than 40% of states who have laws or policies restricting cell phone use in schools. Missouri has similar legislation in the works, and voters are in support.

This research was presented at the Mapping Spaces, Embodying Territories 2025 Conference at Saint Louis University on April 4, 2025.

Free and Reduced-Price Lunch (FRL) can be a bit of a buzzword in the education space. In today’s blog post, we dispel common misconceptions about the program, and answer some FAQs.

For years, President Donald Trump has campaigned on, among other things, his intentions to dissolve the Department of Education. In January 2025, two bills seeking to do just that, were introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R.369 and H.R.899). Just yesterday, Trump signed an executive order that would begin eliminating the federal Department of Education, citing poor test scores as a key justification for the move.

The newest data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education finds that more than one in five K–12 students were chronically absent in the 2023–24 school year. From 2019 to 2024, nearly 91% of Missouri districts (499 total) have experienced a rise in chronic absenteeism—defined as missing at least ten percent of scheduled school days. Here, we explore key trends from the most recent Missouri attendance data.

The results are in: Missouri voters want later high school start times.

Over the last decade, charter schools in Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas have grown, while traditional public school enrollment has generally declined. However, preliminary data for the 2024-25 school year suggests that some of these trends may be shifting.

Community schools are commonly defined as physical and relational hubs for partnerships between the school and community to support student, family, and community well-being (Oakes et al., 2017). These schools are expanding nationwide to improve equity and student success. St. Louis has experimented with community schools since the 1960s, with various iterations such as Community Education Centers and Full-Service Schools. Many initiatives faced funding shortages, leadership instability, or external disruptions, highlighting the need for sustainable implementation strategies.

Each year, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provides data on the attendance rates of Missouri students. Here, we provide a brief overview of chronic absenteeism and updated attendance rates in Missouri in advance of our forthcoming policy brief. We also debut PRiME’s interactive maps, this one detailing the most recent proportional attendance rates by district.

With children making up roughly one-fifth of the homeless population, education policy must address support and resources for these students and for schools. In this blog post, we explore the data on students experiencing homelessness in Missouri.

To calculate school funding, Missouri currently uses a model that estimates the cost of adequately educating a child and subtracts out what can be raised locally through taxes to arrive at the total aid provided to a school. The current model was developed nearly 20 years ago in 2005. There is contention with a few key pieces of the funding formula, some of which were addressed this year with the passage of Senate Bill 727, and some that persist. 

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam has been given to students since 1969. This nationwide assessment produces important metrics about our country’s students. Here, we discuss nationwide and Missouri-specific trends from the 2024 data release.

The PRiME Center’s Executive Director, Dr. Collin Hitt, breaks down the Missouri Growth Model and answers frequently asked questions about Growth Scores.   

Dozens of Missouri schools have been recognized as the state’s “highest growth schools” in a series of new rankings from the PRiME Center at Saint Louis University. These schools are being highlighted for the significant educational gains their students made over the last two school years.

As more school districts across Missouri adopt a four-day school week (4DSW), the debate over its effectiveness continues. Here, we summarize what we’ve learned about the 4DSW in Missouri.

In 2024, SLU and YouGov partnered to poll Missouri voters (once in February and once in August) and Missouri parents (in May) on education topics. Below, we cover three voter opinions that received strong consensus from Missouri voters and parents.