Momentum Acad Tower Grve South, St. Louis MO

Original Research by School Decision on Momentum Acad Tower Grve South

Momentum Academy Tower Grove South is a charter school in St. Louis serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It operates as part of the Momentum Academy district, which rebranded from the National Eagle College Prep name in 2022, a publicly reported shift in identity and educational direction. The school’s charter contract was renewed by the Missouri Charter Public School Commission through 2028, securing its authorization for families considering it.

The student body is small for a PK-8 campus, and its composition is predominantly Black, with a notable share of Hispanic students and a smaller presence of Asian and multiracial students. Every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school in a high-poverty context. Information on special education identification and English learner status was not available in the data.

State testing data on the Missouri Assessment Program shows that proficiency rates across math, English language arts, and science are low in every tested grade where results were reported. Several grade-level results were suppressed, which often happens when the group size is very small, so the full picture is incomplete. Where rates are visible, they run well below district and state averages. Compared with all other districts in St. Louis city, the school’s overall proficiency index--the mean of reported rates across subjects and grades--sits below the midpoint of the cohort.

Because this school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data was also absent from the available records.

The school is located in the Tower Grove South neighborhood of St. Louis, an independent city with a diverse economy anchored by health care, research universities, and federal agencies. The city is known for its large parks, cultural institutions, and historic architecture, but the school sits in a residential area of the city. Housing values in the zip code are modest compared with national benchmarks, and rents are in line with that pattern.

A parent looking at this school will find a small, high-poverty charter serving mostly elementary and middle grades. The academic results on state assessments are weak across the board, and a family weighing this option will want to investigate what instructional supports, interventions, or programmatic strengths the school offers beyond what test scores capture. The district’s rebranding and contract renewal suggest organizational stability at the administrative level, but the evidence on classroom outcomes is thin and points to significant challenges.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 26% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 630%

School 30% · District 21% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 312%

School 12% · District 14% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 48%

School 8% · District 9%

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 17% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 728%

School 28% · District 20% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 818%

School 18% · District 16% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 7% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 87%

School 7% · District 13% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

This schoolMOMENTUM ACADEMY, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.