The top reported proficiency rate is 61% in Science. The lowest is 55% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Dewey Elementary
Dewey Elementary is one of the schools in the Chillicothe R-II School District, located in the town of Chillicothe in north-central Missouri. The school serves just two grade levels, fourth and fifth, making it a transitional bridge between the primary grades and middle school. The student body is predominantly white, reflecting the broader community, and about two-fifths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a meaningful share but does not define the school as a high-poverty campus.
Chillicothe itself is the largest community in its part of the state, functioning as a regional hub for agriculture and related business. Its civic life centers on a historic downtown square with the county courthouse, and the town offers a YMCA, a water park, a sports complex, and a public library. The schools, including Dewey, sit on separate campuses around town rather than in the downtown core. Housing in the area is moderately more affordable than the national median, which is consistent with a small midwestern town where population has been stable over recent decades.
The most notable change in the district is a recent school consolidation. Families with elementary-aged children should know that the district moved from six schools in the prior year to four, merging the earlier arrangement of separate buildings for pre-kindergarten through first, second and third, and fourth and fifth grades into a single elementary building for kindergarten through fifth grade. This means that as of the current school year, Dewey no longer serves as a standalone building for grades four and five. A parent looking at this data should confirm where their child would actually attend, because the structure described in the enrollment data may now be an artifact of the previous configuration.
Academic performance at Dewey, as measured by state assessments, shows a mixed picture. In fourth-grade math, a solid majority of students scored at or above the proficient level, which is a strong result. Fifth-grade math was notably weaker, with about half of students reaching proficiency. In English language arts, fourth-grade results were suppressed in the data and are not available for review, while fifth-grade ELA came in near the midpoint, with a slim majority of students proficient. Fifth-grade science was better, with roughly three in five students meeting the bar. The pattern is uneven, with the school showing clear strength in fourth-grade math and fifth-grade science, but a softer showing in fifth-grade math. A parent may want to ask the school directly about what drives that dip between fourth and fifth grade in math.
Because Dewey serves only two grades, there is no graduation rate, no data on chronic absenteeism, and no course access information to report. The district comparison set was too small to position Dewey relative to other Livingston County schools, so the proficiency results stand on their own without a local benchmark. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet.
For a family considering Chillicothe, Dewey represents the upper elementary years in a district that has recently reorganized its buildings. The town offers a stable, small-city feel with modest housing costs and a handful of community amenities. The academic picture is one of solid performance in some areas and a need for follow-up in others, particularly around the transition to fifth-grade math.
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