Missouri’s Best Small Schools

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:

Downloaded performance data of all 718 high schools from U S News and World Report
Deleted all schools over 1000 students
Removed private schools to level the playing field
Removed schools in metro areas of St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield (not small towns)
Ranked schools in Classes 1-4 from the MSHSAA classifications (basketball).
- Class 1: 1-79 students
- Class 2: 80-154 students
- Class 3: 155-303 students
- Class 4: 304-615 students
- Class 5: 616-1000+ students

Methodology for “Score” is listed below.

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!

Class 1

High School	Students	Score	State Rank
1. Richland (Essex)	73	81.89	#35
2. St. Elizabeth	72	80.75	#37
3. Norborne	48	74.50	#50
4. North Shelby	84	72.82	#56
5. Hale	43	72.01	#58
6. Winston	52	64.79	#86
7. Gideon	65	61.11	#101
8. Northeast Nodaway	76	59.79	#108
9. Miami	50	54.16	#131
10. Walnut Grove	76	53.57	#133

Enrollment of 1-79 students

Class 2

High School	Students	Score	State Rank
1. Pilot Grove	98	85.34	#26
2. Weaubleau	124	71.03	#62
3. Fair Play	90	69.13	#70
4. Wheaton	122	63.33	#92
5. Meadville	85	61.44	#99
6. Sante Fe	108	60.09	#106
7. Winona	154	59.23	#111
8. Green Ridge	110	58.27	#113
9. Oran	117	56.49	#121
10. Rock Port	98	55.92	#123

Enrollment of 80-154 students

Class 3

High School	Students	Score	State Rank
1. West Platte (Weston)	192	89.99	#17
2. Fordland	160	77.91	#43
3. Valley Park	258	74.80	#49
4. Scotland County (Memphis)	163	73.40	#53
5. Skyline	230	72.88	#55
6. Smithton	190	71.32	#61
7. Elsberry	224	69.54	#68
8. New Bloomfield	234	66.77	#74
9. Twin Rivers (Broseley)	246	64.91	#83
10. Blue Eye	178	63.99	#89

Enrollment of 155-303 students

Class 4/5

High School	Students	Score	State Rank
1. Knob Noster	426	86.04	#23
2. Orchard Farm	606	78.47	#40
3. Pleasant Hill	700	70.57	#66
4. Harrisonville	757	70.32	#67
5. Carl Junction	975	69.27	#69
6. Moberly	745	67.47	#73
7. Excelsior Springs	794	66.37	#77
8. Eldon	588	66.12	#78
9. Liberty (Mtn View)	344	64.47	#87
10. Osage	652	64.30	#88