Well, I was born in a small town And I live in a small town Probably die in a small town Oh, those small communities
-John Mellencamp, “Small Town”
I grew up in a small town. (Feel free to sing along) My graduating class was around 60 students, and we were 30 miles away from the nearest McDonalds. People who grew up in similar small town across Missouri know all about a story like this. It’s different. And so are the schools — and the passion people in these towns have about their schools.
Why This List:
That’s why I decided to crunch the numbers differently when it comes to educational performance of Missouri schools. I wanted to find the top performing small-town schools that are often left out of the rankings that we see in the media. The playing field is often not level, so why are schools ranked the same.
Many Lists are Unfair:
I know that other people feel the same way because I often get complaints about unfair competition when I do stories on TV. Just take a look at the list of “Best High Schools for Sports” that was recently released. 16 of the top 25 are private high schools and most of the others are in major cities.
Missouri’s Best Small Schools
So here is how I came up with this list of Missouri’s Best Small Schools:
It seems like a fair comparison to find the best schools from smaller towns in Missouri, but others may disagree. And that’s fine because everyone can make their own list!
