The top reported proficiency rate is 22% in English language arts. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Scott Co. Elem.
Scott County Elementary sits just outside Benton, Missouri, a small rural county-seat town in the southeastern Bootheel region. The town itself is geographically compact, with a courthouse-centered downtown typical of a Missouri county seat, a public library, and limited commercial activity. As the county seat, government offices and the school district itself are among the local employers, though many residents likely commute to nearby larger towns. The town is experiencing modest, gradual growth, and the housing market reflects a more affordable profile: home values in the area are below both state and national benchmarks, making it a relatively accessible place for families to buy in. A substantial share of students at the elementary school qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which aligns with the broader economic context of the community.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, with an enrollment that is typical for a small-town elementary. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small shares of students identifying as two or more races, Hispanic, Black, or American Indian or Alaska Native. As an elementary school serving only early and intermediate grades, it does not have a graduation rate to report, nor does it offer the kind of course pathways found at the high school level. The school operates as a regular public school within the Scott County R-IV district, and it is not a charter or magnet school.
The academic picture is one where a parent may want to look further into the school's instructional approach and support for student learning. On the Missouri Assessment Program, proficiency rates in both math and English language arts fell below the midpoint across the tested grades of three, four, and five. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above was in the range of roughly one in seven to roughly one in five, varying by grade. In English language arts, the pattern was similar, with the highest single grade reaching roughly one in four students proficient. Science results for fifth grade showed a comparable share. Across these subjects and grade levels, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile among districts in Scott County, where the full range of proficiency across the county's seven districts spanned from a similarly low level to roughly half of students proficient. The district itself did not have any recent publicly reported changes or strategic initiatives that would provide additional context for these results.
Because this is an elementary school, there are no high-school-level program offerings to examine, and data on special education identification rates and English learner populations were not available. Information on chronic absenteeism and discipline was also absent from the available data. For a parent considering this school, the central question is how the school addresses the gap between current outcomes and grade-level expectations. The town provides a quiet rural setting with modest housing costs and a slow-growth environment. Families who value that context will want to pair it with a close look at how the school supports the students who are currently scoring below the proficient threshold.
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