Missouri school board elections, 2017

Elections

A total of 17 Missouri school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2017 for 52 seats. All of the elections were scheduled on April 4, 2017.

Here are several quick facts about Missouri's school board elections in 2017:

• The largest Missouri school district by enrollment with an election in 2017 was St. Louis Public Schools with 30,831 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.
• The smallest Missouri school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2017 was the Mehlville School District with 10,331 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

The districts listed below served 289,603 K-12 students during the 2014-2015 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each one and its school board elections.

2017 Missouri School Board Elections
District	Primary Election	General Election	Runoff Election	Regular term length	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2014-15 enrollment
Columbia Public Schools	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	17,985
Blue Springs School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	14,466
Fort Zumwalt R-II School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	4	7	18,432
Ferguson-Florissant School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	11,466
Fox C-6 School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	11,681
Francis Howell School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	17,785
Hazelwood School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	18,118
Lee's Summit R-7 Schools	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	17,848
Liberty Public Schools	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	4	7	12,009
Mehlville School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	10,331
North Kansas City Schools	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	2	7	19,862
Park Hill School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	10,924
Parkway Schools	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	16,393
Rockwood School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	4	7	20,553
Springfield Public Schools	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	2	7	25,781
St. Louis Public Schools	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	4	3	7	30,831
Wentzville R-IV School District	N/A	4/4/2017	N/A	3	3	7	15,138

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Missouri

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Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
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NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The table below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Students in Missouri scored about the same as those in Arkansas and Illinois, but slightly lower than students in Iowa. The best scores in the state were earned by fourth graders in math, with 39 percent scoring at or above proficient.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Missouri	39%	33%	35%	36%
Arkansas	39%	28%	32%	30%
Illinois	39%	36%	34%	36%
Iowa	48%	36%	38%	37%
United States	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Missouri and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Missouri schools reported a graduation rate of 85.7 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, second highest among its neighboring states.

In Missouri, more students took the ACT than the SAT in 2013, earning an average ACT score of 21.6.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Missouri	85.7%	Second	21.6	74%	1773	4%
Arkansas	84.9%	Second	20.2	90%	1697	4%
Illinois	83.2%	Third	20.6	100%	1807	5%
Iowa	89.7%	First	22.1	66%	1763	3%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Missouri was higher than the national average at 3.4 percent in the 2010-2011 school year. The dropout rate was lower than the national average at 2.9 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Missouri
	Missouri	U.S.
Total population:	6,076,204	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	68,742	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	82.6%	73.6%
Black/African American:	11.5%	12.6%
Asian:	1.8%	5.1%
Native American:	0.4%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.4%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	3.9%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	88.4%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	27.1%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$48,173	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	18.2%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Missouri. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Missouri

Missouri voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

More Missouri coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Missouri
• United States congressional delegations from Missouri
• Public policy in Missouri
• Endorsers in Missouri
• Missouri fact checks
• More...

See also

Missouri	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Missouri List of school districts in Missouri	School board elections, 2017 Missouri school board elections, 2016 Missouri school board elections, 2015 Missouri school board elections, 2014	School boards in session: 2015 in brief School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Footnotes

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