Original Research by School Decision on Spickard R-ii
Spickard R-II is a tiny school district in Grundy County, Missouri, serving only kindergarten through sixth grade. With a single school building, Spickard Elementary, the district’s entire enrollment is very small. Because the district does not serve grades beyond sixth, there is no high school and therefore no graduation rate to report. A parent considering this district would be looking at an elementary-only setting, meaning children would need to transfer to another district for seventh grade onward.
The district’s size has a direct effect on what is publicly known about academic performance. State testing data for the Missouri Assessment Program is available for third-grade math and English language arts and for fifth-grade science, but in every case the proficiency rates are suppressed. This is standard practice when the number of students tested is so small that releasing results could identify individual students. The counts that were reported show very few test-takers per grade. For example, in a recent year seven third graders took both the math and ELA assessments, and five fifth graders took the science assessment. No scale scores or proficiency levels were released. A family considering this district should understand that they will not be able to compare classroom outcomes through public test data in the way they could with a larger school.
What can be compared is the district’s standing among Grundy County’s four districts. On chronic absenteeism, Spickard R-II reported no absence problems at all, the lowest rate in the county and well below any of its peers. On per-pupil current spending, the district sits at the upper range of the county. Its spending is well above the typical level for a district this size, likely reflecting the fixed costs of running a school building and staff for a very small student body.
The student body is almost entirely White, with a single student identified as two or more races. No data is available on the share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, on students with disabilities, or on English learners. The district did not report those figures, so a parent would want to ask the school directly about the supports available.
Housing in the area the district serves is relatively affordable. The weighted home value for the district’s two main zip codes is below both the Missouri median and the national median, at roughly a level that would put a monthly mortgage payment near the national median rent. The vast majority of the district’s housing weight falls in the Spickard zip code, with a small fraction in the Princeton zip code. Home values in Spickard have been very stable. The economic context shows mortgage rates near six and a half percent and a national unemployment rate just over four percent, but no local income or employment data for the district itself was provided.
No recent district-level changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or property tax adjustments were found in available sources. The district appears to be operating without major public disruptions.
For a family looking for a very small, K-6 rural school environment where the district knows every student by name and where chronic absenteeism is nonexistent, Spickard R-II is that kind of place. The trade-off is that you get very little public academic data, and you will need to plan for middle and high school elsewhere. The high per-pupil spending suggests the district is investing heavily in its small program, but what that investment buys in terms of course offerings or enrichment is not captured in the available data. A parent would need to visit the school and talk directly with staff to learn what a typical day looks like.
See more original research from School Decision →