Nearly Four in Ten Missouri Districts Hit All-Time High Graduation Rates

Fri, 29 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Missouri's graduation surge is not a story confined to a few high-profile districts. In 2025, 179 of the state's 455 districts posted their highest four-year graduation rate on record, a share of 39.3 percent. Nearly four in ten districts are at their best-ever mark.

The record-setters include large districts with substantial cohorts: Springfield R-XII at 98.9 percent with 2,017 students, Blue Springs R-IV at 98.5 percent with 1,172 students, and North Kansas City 74 at 98.2 percent with 1,727 students. Thirteen districts achieved a perfect 100 percent rate with cohorts of at least 50 students.

The other end

While 179 districts sit at all-time highs, 50 districts posted their lowest rate in the data window, a share of 11.0 percent. The ratio of districts at highs to districts at lows is roughly 3.6 to 1, a strong signal that the statewide improvement is broad-based rather than driven by a few outliers pulling the average up.

Among districts with meaningful cohort sizes, the vast majority are clustered above 90 percent. The distribution shows a long left tail of struggling districts and a dense concentration near the top.

Who is setting records

The largest districts at all-time highs represent a cross-section of Missouri's geography and demographics. Suburban Kansas City districts, St. Louis County districts, outstate communities, and mid-size cities all appear on the list. The breadth matters because it rules out the possibility that the state record is a statistical artifact of a few turnarounds.

Above 95 percent

One hundred twenty-five districts with cohorts of at least 50 students graduated 95 percent or more of their students in 2025. That is a staggering concentration of success. It means that in more than a quarter of Missouri's districts, only a handful of students in each cohort fail to finish on time.

The number above 95 percent has grown steadily over the data window, driven by incremental improvements at districts that were already performing well. The state's gains are coming from the middle and top of the distribution compressing upward, not just from turnarounds at the bottom.

The persistent gap

Among the lowest-performing districts in 2025, several are urban and high-poverty. St. Louis City graduated 70.3 percent of its cohort, Grandview C-4 72.5 percent (its own lowest mark in the data window), and Normandy Schools Collaborative 73.3 percent. The gap between the highest and lowest districts in Missouri spans nearly 80 percentage points when including the Special School District of St. Louis County (19.2 percent, a special education district).

Missouri's graduation story is overwhelmingly positive, but the concentration of struggling districts in a small number of urban communities means the state's gains are unevenly shared.

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.

Missouri Hits an All-Time High: 92.7 Percent of Students Graduate on Time

Fri, 01 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Missouri graduated 92.7 percent of its four-year cohort in 2025, the highest rate in the state's history and roughly six percentage points above the most recently reported national four-year graduation rate of 87 percent. The milestone marks the culmination of a steady climb from a post-COVID trough of 90.6 percent in 2021.

What makes the number especially significant is that it was achieved with a larger graduating class. Missouri's 2025 cohort included 68,809 students, up from 65,761 in 2019, a gain of 3,048 students. More students entered the pipeline, and a higher share of them finished. The result: an estimated 63,788 on-time graduates in 2025 compared with 59,853 in 2019, nearly 4,000 additional graduates per year.

Year by year

The path to 92.7 percent was not a smooth ascent. Missouri's rate was 91.0 percent in 2019 before rising slightly to 91.2 percent in 2020, then dipping to 90.6 percent in 2021. The recovery began in 2022 at 91.1 percent and continued through 2023 (91.0 percent), 2024 (91.8 percent), and 2025 (92.7 percent).

The 2025 gain of 0.9 percentage points was the largest single-year improvement in the data window. At the statewide level, where the denominator is nearly 69,000 students, that increment represents roughly 600 additional on-time graduates.

Every group improved

All major racial and ethnic groups posted higher graduation rates in 2025 than in 2019. Asian students led at 94.8 percent, followed by white students at 94.5 percent, multiracial students at 93.1 percent, Hispanic students at 87.9 percent, and Black students at 86.7 percent. Black students' rate was the highest in the data series, a milestone driven in part by dramatic turnarounds in Kansas City and other districts.

The gaps between groups narrowed modestly. The white-Black gap fell from 9.7 points in 2019 to 7.8 points in 2025, the lowest point in the seven-year series. The white-Hispanic gap moved less: 6.5 points in 2019, 6.6 points in 2025, with year-to-year variation between roughly 5.6 and 7.2 points along the way.

What 92.7 percent leaves behind

At 92.7 percent, approximately 5,021 students in Missouri's 2025 cohort did not graduate in four years. Some will finish in a fifth or sixth year. Others will not. Missouri's State Board of Education sets a 24-credit minimum for a high school diploma, including practical arts, personal finance, and physical education.

The remaining 7.3 percent who do not finish on time are disproportionately concentrated in a small number of struggling districts. St. Louis City (70.3 percent), Grandview C-4 (72.5 percent), and Normandy Schools Collaborative (73.3 percent) together account for hundreds of non-graduates while 385 of the state's 455 districts hold rates of 90 percent or higher.

The state's MSIP accountability system uses graduation rate as a key indicator alongside attendance, academic achievement, and growth.

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.

Grandview C-4 - EdTribune MO - Missouri Education Data

Nearly Four in Ten Missouri Districts Hit All-Time High Graduation Rates

The other end

Who is setting records

Above 95 percent

The persistent gap

Data source

Missouri Hits an All-Time High: 92.7 Percent of Students Graduate on Time

Year by year

Every group improved

What 92.7 percent leaves behind

Data source