Summary:
The South West City, Missouri area is home to two elementary schools - Southwest City Elementary and Noel Primary - which serve students in the McDonald County R-I School District. While both schools face challenges, they exhibit notable differences in student demographics, resource allocation, and academic performance.
Noel Primary has a more diverse student population, with higher percentages of African American, Asian, and Pacific Islander students compared to Southwest City Elementary. Additionally, Noel Primary serves a significantly higher proportion of economically disadvantaged students, with 82.55% of its students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, compared to 66.67% at Southwest City Elementary. However, Noel Primary spends more per student ($10,921) than Southwest City Elementary ($8,714), which may indicate the district's efforts to support the needs of its more diverse and economically disadvantaged student population.
Despite the additional resources, the academic performance at Southwest City Elementary lags behind both district and state averages, particularly in Math and English Language Arts proficiency. For example, only 12.3% of 8th-grade students at Southwest City Elementary were proficient in Math, compared to 18.8% for the district and 30% for the state. Consequently, Southwest City Elementary has consistently ranked in the bottom half of Missouri elementary schools, with a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger for the past three school years. These findings suggest that the school may be facing significant challenges in effectively educating its students, and further investigation into the root causes of this underperformance would be warranted.
Thank you for your feedback!