For Kids With Challenges, These Missouri Schools Are Bright Spots for Reading
Aldeman: At 15 schools statewide, literacy scores for low-income students, English learners & children with disabilities are much higher than expected.
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This article is part of Bright Spots, a series聽highlighting schools where every child learns to read, no matter their zip code. Explore the Bright Spots map to find out which schools are beating the odds in terms of literacy versus poverty rates.
This story is part of our SPOTLIGHT series focusing on the state of education in Missouri. Read more here.
Missouri has spent the last several years overhauling its approach to teaching reading. State leaders have millions in teacher training, evidence-based instruction, literacy screening and interventions for struggling readers.
Yet Missouri’s reading results remain well below where they were a decade ago. Fourth-grade NAEP reading scores fell more than 10 points between 2013 and 2024, one of the largest declines in the country.
Many of the state鈥檚 reform efforts are still being implemented, and statewide averages can take years to respond. But if Missouri leaders want to accelerate improvement, they could start by studying the schools that are already producing the strongest outcomes for disadvantaged students.
Like almost every other state, Missouri鈥檚 reading scores have fallen over the last decade. The chart below shows the change visually. It plots the distribution of Missouri鈥檚 fourth-grade reading scores in 2013 (in blue) versus 2024 (in red). The average score fell by 10.4 points, and, compared to 2013, Missouri had a lot more low performers (the red section on the left) and fewer medium and high performers (the blue section in the center-right).
To find the state’s top public schools for teaching kids to read, it might be tempting to start with those that have posted the highest reading scores. However, that approach can give schools credit for things they didn鈥檛 do. Students may arrive in kindergarten already knowing their letters and sounds, for example, or parents may be able to provide extensive literacy support at home. The schools those students attend may be excellent, but high scores alone don’t tell us how much value the school itself added.
That’s exactly the philosophy behind our Bright Spots project at 社区黑料. Rather than simply ranking schools by raw scores, we adjusted for student demographics and identified schools producing stronger reading outcomes than expected based on their average poverty level. After controlling for economic advantages, we sorted through the data for 42,000 schools and identified 2,158 as Bright Spots.
An even simpler way to capture this idea is to look for schools getting good outcomes for student groups that typically struggle. For example, in Missouri, just under 42% of students scored proficient or higher on the state鈥檚 third-grade reading test in 2025. But among low-income students, that number was under 30%.
Still, some schools stand out as places worth investigating. Among schools with at least 20 low-income test-takers, 83 saw their economically disadvantaged students score better than the statewide average for all students. Some of these, like Mallinckrodt Elementary in St. Louis and John T. Hartman Elementary in Kansas City, are selective magnet schools and may not have replicable models. But others, like Cedar Springs and Cole Camp elementaries, are open to all students in their communities and get strong outcomes for low-income kids.
Income is highly correlated with reading proficiency, but other factors matter too. For example, non-native English speakers have a harder time answering English reading comprehension questions.
Still, five Missouri schools had higher reading proficiency rates for English learners than the state did overall. Those were led by McKelvey Intermediate school, where 71% of English learners scored proficient or better on the third-grade reading test. That was 30 points higher than the state鈥檚 overall proficiency rate. Additionally, the North Kansas City School District may be worth further attention, given that it had two of the top five highest-performing schools in this category.
Similarly, students with disabilities often struggle to read proficiently, and across Missouri, just 14% reached that benchmark in third-grade reading. Yet some schools did much better. For example, students with disabilities attending Lakeview Elementary in Wentzville actually outperformed the statewide average for all students. Notably, the Lindbergh School District had two of the top five schools on this list.
Some of these schools may benefit from exceptional leadership, unusually talented teachers or local circumstances that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere.
But as they look to implement reading reforms, Missouri policymakers could start by studying the schools that are already beating the odds. By visiting classrooms, interviewing teachers and principals, examining the curricula they use and observing how they support struggling readers, state leaders could start to unpack what policies are working, and which ones are getting in the way.
That’s the fundamental idea behind the Bright Spots project. Data alone can’t tell us why these schools succeed. But it can tell us where to start looking.
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Chad Aldeman is a regular columnist for 社区黑料. He writes about school finance, state assessments and accountability, and the teacher labor market. He is also the founder of聽, a program to help parents teach their children to read.
