Summary:
Melvern has two schools in the Marais Des Cygnes Valley district: Marais Des Cygnes Valley High, serving grades 9–12, and Marais Des Cygnes Valley Middle, serving grades 6–8. These are small schools, enrolling 53 and 35 students, respectively. Because they serve different grade spans, school-to-school test comparisons are school-wide rather than same-grade comparisons. The clearest finding is a sharp subject contrast: the high school’s 2024–25 math proficiency was far above the state, while its ELA result was below it.
Marais Des Cygnes Valley High stands out for 2024–25 math: 92% of students were proficient, compared with 43% at the middle school and 39% statewide; the high school’s rate was 54 points above the state. Its ELA result was much lower, at 31%, versus 43% at the middle school and 44% statewide. The middle school’s strongest recent result was 2025–26 all-grades ELA: 47%, 1 point above the state’s 46%. Its math was a weak spot that year, at 26% versus 41% statewide, and its science result was 33% versus 38%. The high school’s grade 11 science result was also low: 10%, 20 points below the same-grade state rate.
Recent results show improvement in some areas but a notable middle-school math decline. From 2024–25 to 2025–26, the middle school’s ELA rose 4 points, while math fell 18 points and science fell 7 points. SchoolDigger’s statewide percentile for the high school rose from 39 to 71 between 2022–23 and 2024–25; the middle school rose from 47 to 63, then fell to 42 in 2025–26. Other indicators are mixed: the high school had 2% chronic absenteeism compared with 20% at the middle school, while the middle school had a slightly lower student-teacher ratio (8.3 versus 8.7) and a higher free/reduced-lunch rate (74% versus 60%). Those background figures describe the schools but do not explain their test results.
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