The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Math. The lowest is 29% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on La Monte High
La Monte High serves seventh through twelfth grade in the La Monte R-IV district, a small rural district that covers the town of La Monte in Pettis County. The school itself is the sole secondary campus for the community, operating as a regular public school in a town that sits at the intersection of US Route 50 and a state highway northwest of Sedalia. The locale is a small rural city with a substantial Hispanic population that makes up close to half of the town, a share that is reflected directly in the school's student body.
The student body is small in size, which is typical for a rural town of this scale, and the grade levels are balanced evenly, with each grade from seventh through twelfth enrolling a similar number of students. The racial and ethnic composition of the school is roughly split between white students and Hispanic students, with a handful of students who are Asian or Black. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a rate that signals a high level of economic need in the community. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learner status was not available.
On state assessments, the available results are limited and mixed. The state suppressed the proficiency rate for seventh-grade math and for both seventh-grade and eighth-grade English language arts, as well as for eighth-grade science, meaning those figures were not reported for reasons related to group size or data quality. For eighth-grade math, the proficiency rate was reported and fell below the midpoint for the district's category relative to other districts in Pettis County. The overall proficiency index for the school, which averages the reported rates across the tested subjects and grades, also landed below the midpoint among county districts. A parent looking at these numbers will want to follow up directly with the school for a fuller picture of academic performance across all tested areas, particularly because so many results were suppressed.
The school serves a grade band that runs through twelfth grade, but a four-year graduation rate was not available in the data. Similarly, chronic absenteeism data was not reported. Without those metrics, it is difficult to assess how well the school moves students through to completion or how consistently students attend.
Housing in La Monte is substantially more affordable than the national median, and the town's median home value sits below both the state and national benchmarks. The community has a mix of manufacturing, health care, and agriculture as its leading employment sectors, and the poverty rate has been increasing. No major new housing developments or growth projects were identified, and the population has been stable to slightly declining. The school itself sits within the town rather than on a separated campus, and higher education options are outside the town, with a community college roughly a short drive east and a university a similar distance west.
The district brief did not identify any recent changes with a lasting impact on the school, such as a bond measure, boundary shift, or program launch. For a family considering this school, the core question is how a small, rural, high-needs secondary school with partial assessment data fits their student. The academic picture is incomplete but shows a school that, on the reported measures, is below the midpoint of its county peers. The community is modest in scale, affordable, and stable, with a significant Hispanic population and an economy rooted in manufacturing and agriculture. A parent would want to visit, talk to the principal about the suppressed testing data and the support structures for students, and ask about the graduation and attendance patterns that were not available in this profile.
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