Summary
East Prairie Middle is a public middle school serving grades 5-8 in East Prairie, Missouri, with 317 students. The school is part of the East Prairie R-II school district, which is ranked 284 out of 367 districts in the state and has a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger. Unfortunately, East Prairie Middle has consistently ranked in the bottom half of Missouri middle schools over the past several years, with a ranking between 306-417 out of 438-459 schools.
The school faces significant challenges, including high chronic absenteeism rates ranging from 20.1% to 22.3%, which are significantly higher than the state average. Additionally, East Prairie Middle's test scores are consistently below the state averages across all subjects and grade levels, with proficiency rates in Math and ELA around 30% or below, compared to the state averages of 38-45%. The school also has an extremely high percentage of students (99-100%) receiving free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic disadvantage among the student population. While the school's spending per student, at $8,104, is lower than the nearby schools, which range from $8,925 to $14,315 per student, its student-teacher ratio is relatively low, ranging from 11.3 to 11.9 over the past few years.
Interestingly, while East Prairie Middle's overall performance is low, the school performs better for its low-income students and students with disabilities compared to its white student population. The nearby schools, such as Scott County Middle, Central Middle School, and Sikeston Junior High School, also have relatively low performance, with rankings and test scores similar to or slightly better than East Prairie Middle. However, these schools have lower percentages of students receiving free/reduced lunch, suggesting that the economic disadvantage of East Prairie Middle's student population may be a significant factor in its low performance.
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