The top reported proficiency rate is 61% in English language arts. The lowest is 56% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Festus Intermediate
Festus Intermediate serves fourth through sixth grade in the Festus R-VI district, a regular public school drawing from a suburban city roughly a half-hour south of downtown St. Louis. The city itself is shaped by Interstate 55, which splits it into east and west sections, and by commercial growth along the highway corridors and at the I-55 and Route A interchange. A historic downtown Main Street district has seen a revival with restaurants, a brewery, and specialty shops, but the school sits on a separated campus rather than in that core. Festus residents recently voted out several city councilors over a contentious data center annexation, signaling an active local political scene. The district brief turned up no major parent-relevant changes over the last several years, so the district appears to have been operating without a recent overhaul in programming or boundaries.
The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of students identifying as two or more races, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or American Indian or Alaska Native. Just under half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that places the school in a middle economic position among its peers.
On the Missouri Assessment Program, Festus Intermediate’s results sit in a positive position relative to other schools in Jefferson County. When the school is compared against other districts in the county, its overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades lands in the top quartile. That is a meaningful signal: the school’s performance is notably stronger than most of its county peers. Looking at the grade-level detail, math proficiency in fourth grade is solid, with a dip in fifth grade and a rebound in sixth. English language arts holds steady in fourth and fifth grades before softening in sixth. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows a majority of students meeting the bar. None of the individual grade-level numbers would be described as exceptionally high, but the aggregate picture is one of consistent, above-average results for the area.
Other metrics that families often want to see are not available here. The school serves grades four through six, so there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data is missing, and there is no information on staffing ratios, course access, or discipline. Those are gaps a parent would want to follow up on directly with the school. Special education and English learner counts were also not reported, which matters for any family whose child might need those supports.
The housing market in the zip code around Festus shows home values above the state benchmark but still below the national figure, with recent year-over-year appreciation that exceeds state and national trends. That pattern is consistent with a growing exurban area where demand is pushing prices upward. The national mortgage rate environment at the time of this data was in the mid-six percent range, which shapes affordability for any family buying in.
For a family considering Festus Intermediate, the core takeaway is that it is a school delivering above-average academic results relative to its county, within a district that has been stable, in a city with an active commercial corridor and a recent history of political engagement over growth. The absence of data on absenteeism, staffing, and discipline means a parent should ask those questions directly. The school’s size by enrollment is moderate for an intermediate school, and the economic mix of the student body is broad. It is not a school with standout national recognition, but its test results place it comfortably among the stronger options in Jefferson County for these grades.
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