Ladue Ranked Best School District In Missouri

LADUE, MO — A new report has ranked the best school district in Missouri, and the answer may surprise you. The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware corporation that publishes financial news and commentary, sifted through various school data to determine the best school district in every state.

In Missouri, the Ladue School District topped the list. The district has 4,089 students and spends $12,842 per student, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is 98 percent and 73 percent of adults in the district have a bachelor’s degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• child poverty
• spending per student
• graduation rate
• teachers per student
• percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

“That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country,” the authors wrote. “The majority of a school’s budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage.”

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the U.S. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

In St. Louis County, which includes the Ladue School District, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $61,103, higher than the national average of $55,322. In Ladue, it was $186,371 — much higher. The poverty rate in St. Louis County is 9.2 percent compared to the national average of 12.7 percent. In Ladue, it is just 1.4 percent.

But a spokesperson for the Ladue School District says those numbers don't tell the whole story. "Our school district actually serves 10 different municipalities throughout six zip codes, not just Ladue," she said. "While the Ladue School District incorporates some affluent areas of St. Louis County, much of our district lies within areas where the median household income is much closer to the state average."

Median incomes vary widely across the municipalities served by the school district, from $53,080 — about $2,000 less than the national average — to more than twice the national average.

The Ladue School District provided this chart showing average and median incomes across the district's six zip codes:

The nationwide rankings report, published on Monday, follows a January report from the same site that found Missouri ranked 31st in the country for best schools.

Here’s a breakdown of schools in Missouri, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 89 percent (6th highest)
• Public school spending: $11,558 per pupil (23rd lowest)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 31.4 percent (math) 36.3 percent (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 28.5 percent (18th lowest)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 48.5 percent (18th lowest)

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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