The top reported proficiency rate is 86% in English language arts. The lowest is 75% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Avenue City Elem.
Avenue City Elementary is a small regular public school in rural Andrew County, Missouri, serving preschool through eighth grade. It operates within the Avenue City R-IX school district, a three-district county. The school’s postal address is Cosby, but the village of Cosby lies outside the school’s attendance boundary and is served by a different district; the school itself sits in a separate rural area, not within any village limits. The surrounding area is thinly populated, with a long-term population decline in the nearest named place and a primarily residential character. Housing values in the broader zip code have been rising at a moderate pace, and the national mortgage rate environment has been steady.
The school is small by enrollment, with classes that range from very small to modest in size across grades. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small shares of Asian and Hispanic students. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is well below typical levels, indicating a relatively low-poverty population. No data was available on students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent with a child in those categories may want to ask the school directly about supports.
State testing results are reported for most grades in math and ELA, and for science in eighth grade. In math, the proportion of students scoring proficient or above was strong across every grade for which a result was reported, with several grades showing very high rates. In ELA, the two grades with reported results also showed high proficiency, with one grade reaching an especially high level. In eighth-grade science, the large majority of students were proficient. For several grade-subject combinations, results were suppressed—a common practice when the number of test-takers is very small, which is often the case in a school this size. Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and no state testing for grades before third grade. When compared with the other districts in Andrew County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits in the top tier—a strong showing relative to its county peers.
The district did not have any recent major changes publicly documented, and no information was available on programs such as gifted education, specials, or extracurriculars. A parent looking for a detailed course or activity catalog will need to contact the school directly. The school’s environment data—discipline, staffing, attendance—was also absent from available records, so those are gaps a prospective family would want to investigate.
This is a school that fits a family looking for a very small, rural elementary and middle school setting with strong academic performance on state assessments, a low rate of economic disadvantage among students, and a mostly homogeneous student population. It does not have a high school, so families will need to plan for a transition after eighth grade, likely to a nearby district. The surrounding community is sparse, with limited commercial and civic infrastructure, and the school itself is not located within a walkable town center. For those who value a tight-knit, small-school environment with solid test results and are comfortable with a rural location and the absence of some typical data points, Avenue City Elementary is worth a closer look.
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