Demographics
Three Thousand More Students in Missouri's Graduation Pipeline
Missouri's graduating class grew by 3,048 students since 2019 while the graduation rate rose, producing nearly 4,000 additional on-time graduates per year.
Missouri
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Missouri, grounded in Missouri Department of Education data.
St. Joseph Followed Four Annual Declines With a 14.5-Point Graduation-Rate Jump
St. Joseph's graduation rate fell from 83.0% to 77.0% across four annual declines, then rose 14.5 points in 2024 and reached 92.2% in 2025.
Missouri's FRL Chronic Absenteeism Gap Reached 4.7 Points in 2024-25
Missouri's FRL chronic absenteeism gap was 4.7 percentage points in 2024-25, up from 3.2 points in 2014-15, with a 5.8-point peak in 2021-22.
Missouri's Suburban Attendance Rates Remain Above Pre-COVID Levels
Four Missouri suburban districts remained above their 2018-19 chronic-absence rates in 2024-25; North Kansas City 74 and Pattonville also worsened over the latest two-year comparison.
Nine Missouri Districts Where More Students Are Absent Than Present
Nine Missouri districts had chronic absenteeism at or above 50% in 2024-25, ranging from 50.4% in Normandy to 69.9% in Hogan Prep; 560 districts had a published all-students rate.
More Coverage
Absence
St. Louis City and Kansas City Both Remained Above 50% Chronic Absence
St. Louis City and Kansas City 33 each reported chronic-absence rates above 50% for a second consecutive year in 2024-25.
Absence
Six St. Louis-Area Districts Improved. Eight Still Exceed 39% Chronic Absence
Six high-absence St. Louis-area districts improved after 2021-22, but eight still reported rates from 39.6% to 57.1% in 2024-25.
Equity
A 26-Point Graduation Gap Separates Normandy and Clayton
Normandy graduated 73.3 percent of its 2025 cohort on time, 26.2 percentage points below Clayton's rate.
District Spotlight
Grain Valley's 21-Year Growth Streak Ended. Enrollment Is Still Near Its Peak
Grain Valley R-V grew every year from 2001 through 2022, then dipped, rebounded and slipped by five students in preliminary 2026 data. Enrollment remains six below its record.
Equity
KC Black Students Graduated Above St. Louis White Students in 2025
Black students in Kansas City 33 graduated at 89.1 percent in Missouri's 2025 four-year cohort, 9.3 points above white students in St. Louis City. The comparison favored St. Louis in 2019.
District Spotlight
Grandview C-4: Six Straight Years of Declining Graduation Rates
Grandview C-4's graduation rate has fallen every year since 2019, dropping from 82.7 percent to 72.5 percent while neighboring suburban districts hit record highs.
Covid Impact
Only 29% of Missouri Districts Have Recovered from COVID
Only 159 of 547 Missouri districts reached their 2019 enrollment in 2026. The other 388 had a combined 54,097-student deficit.
Graduation Rate
Missouri Students Need Less Extra Time: The Vanishing Gap Between Four-Year and Five-Year Rates
The gap between Missouri's 4-year and 5-year graduation rates shrank from 2.1 points to 0.5 points, suggesting improvements are genuine rather than students being shifted to extended timelines.
District Spotlight
Joplin's Comeback: From 75 Percent to 96 Percent in Four Years
Joplin Schools hit a trough of 75.1 percent in 2021 before surging to 96.5 percent by 2025, including an 8.4-point leap in the final year.
Equity
Missouri's White-Black Graduation Gap Narrows Below Eight Points for the First Time
The gap between white and Black graduation rates in Missouri fell to 7.8 percentage points in 2025, driven by Black student gains that outpaced white students by more than 2 to 1.
