Missouri's statewide graduation rate reached an all-time high of 92.7 percent in 2025. St. Louis CityET graduated 70.3 percent of its students that same year.

The 22.4 percentage point gap between St. Louis and the state is the largest among Missouri's major districts. It is wider than the gap between Kansas City 33 and the state. It is wider than it was six years ago. And there is no trajectory suggesting it will close.

Since 2019, St. Louis City's graduation rate has moved in a narrow band between 69.7 percent and 74.0 percent, ending 2025 at essentially the same level where it started. The rest of the state improved. St. Louis did not.

A Hispanic rate in freefall

The most alarming trend in St. Louis is not the overall stagnation. It is the collapse of the Hispanic graduation rate. In 2019, 65.7 percent of Hispanic students in St. Louis graduated on time. By 2025, that figure had fallen to 51.2 percent, a decline of 14.6 percentage points. Barely half of Hispanic students are finishing high school in four years.

The decline has been relentless. The rate dropped in five of the six years between 2019 and 2025, with only a partial recovery in 2024 that was immediately reversed. For a subgroup that represents a growing share of the district's enrollment, this trajectory is unsustainable.

Black students, who make up the majority of St. Louis enrollment, graduate at 71.2 percent, 18 points below the statewide Black rate of 86.7 percent. White students graduate at 79.8 percent, 14.7 points below statewide white rates.

A shrinking pipeline

The district's cohort is also contracting. In 2019, St. Louis had 1,693 students in its four-year graduating class. By 2025, that number had fallen to 1,406, a loss of 287 students. The shrinking cohort means St. Louis is failing a smaller absolute number of students, but the rate itself has not budged.

At 70.3 percent and 1,406 students, approximately 417 students in St. Louis City's 2025 cohort did not graduate on time. That is 417 students entering adulthood without a diploma in a city where the poverty rate already exceeds 20 percent.

Provisional and struggling

St. Louis City remains provisionally accredited, a designation that reflects persistent academic challenges across the district. The city has faced administrative turnover, facility closures, and some of the worst pandemic learning loss in the nation.

The contrast with Kansas City 33, which climbed from 69.4 percent to 88.2 percent over the same period, makes the stagnation all the more stark. In 2019, the two cities were within 2.3 points of each other. By 2025, a chasm of 17.8 points separated them.

St. Louis Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.

Data source

Analysis based on graduation data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.