Original Research by School Decision on Lex La-ray Technical Ctr.
This is a career and technical school serving grades nine through twelve in Lexington, Missouri. It is a specialized institution, which means the conventional academic measures used for comprehensive high schools do not apply here in the same way. There were no state assessment proficiency results available for this school, which is not unusual for a technical center where the instructional focus and the testing regimens are different from those of a traditional high school. For the same reason, the four-year graduation rate and chronic absenteeism rate were also not available in the data. A family looking at this school will want to understand that its purpose is to provide vocational and technical training, and the standard academic performance indicators do not capture its mission.
The school is part of the Lexington R-V school district. Enrollment and demographic data were reported but all fields showed a value of zero for student counts, and free or reduced-price lunch data, special education data, and English learner data were all missing. This likely reflects the fact that a career and technical center often does not enroll students directly in the same way a comprehensive high school does; students may attend from multiple sending high schools for part of the day, and their core enrollment and demographic data are recorded at their home schools. A parent should confirm with the school or district how enrollment works and what the typical student population looks like.
Lexington is a small city in Lafayette County, with Lafayette Regional Health Center as a major employer. The housing market in the area around the school shows that home values have been rising at a strong pace relative to national trends, and are moderately lower than the statewide benchmark. The estimated monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home is roughly in line with what a household earning the national median income would spend. The national unemployment rate has been steady and low, which forms part of the broader economic context for the region.
The district itself did not have any recent major changes of lasting impact reported in publicly available sources. The school is a career and technical school, and its academic and performance picture is not drawn from the testing data that parents may be used to seeing for comprehensive high schools. Anyone evaluating this school should visit, ask about the specific trade and technical programs offered, and learn how students divide their time between this center and their home high school. That direct inquiry will give a far clearer picture than the absent test scores and graduation rates can provide.
See more original research from School Decision →