The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Monett Intermediate
Monett Intermediate serves exactly two grades, fourth and fifth, and acts as a bridge between the district’s elementary schools and its middle school. The school is part of the Monett R-I district, which covers a city that mixes manufacturing plants, a historic downtown, and growing residential areas. Monett’s economy rests on major employers like Jack Henry & Associates, Tyson Foods, and CoxHealth, and the city has been adding residents steadily in recent years. A family moving here for work at one of those employers would find a school that sits right in the middle of a child’s elementary experience.
The student body is close to evenly split between white and Hispanic children, with smaller numbers of Asian, multiracial, and other backgrounds. More than two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a level that puts the school in a higher-needs category. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it does not serve grades where a graduation rate or high school course access would apply. That grade configuration shapes what a parent can evaluate: there are no AP or dual-credit programs to consider, and no high-stakes graduation metric to judge.
On state assessments, the school’s results place it in a strong position relative to other districts in Barry County. When averaged across fourth- and fifth-grade math, English language arts, and fifth-grade science, the school’s proficiency rate sits in the top quarter of the county’s seven districts. That is a meaningful signal given the county’s range. Roughly half of students in each tested subject and grade scored at the proficient level or above. In math, the share was a bit under half in fourth grade and slightly higher in fifth. In English language arts and science, the share was close to half. For a school where a substantial majority of students qualify for meal assistance, these results suggest that the school is getting a solid share of its students to the state’s proficiency bar.
The data does not include counts for students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent whose child falls into either category would want to ask the school directly about services and staffing ratios. The same goes for discipline data and attendance rates; those fields are absent from the available information. The school’s own website may hold the answers a parent would need on those topics.
Monett Intermediate itself is a brick building on 9th Street, a few blocks from the downtown historic district. The city adopted a complete streets policy in an effort to improve walkability, and the school sits in a neighborhood that is a mix of older homes and newer subdivisions. The district is not in the middle of a major reorganization; the district brief turned up no notable recent changes to curriculum, boundaries, or leadership. That stability may appeal to families who want a predictable path from fourth into fifth grade and then on to Monett Middle School.
For a family weighing a move to Monett, this school offers a straightforward, middle-of-the-road academic experience with results that are clearly above the county median. The student body is economically diverse, and the share of Hispanic families is large enough that a newcomer with a Spanish-speaking background would find plenty of peers. The school does not have the kind of standout specialty programs that draw families from outside the district, but it also does not show signs of the deep struggles that some peers in the county face. A parent should inquire about special education and English learner support directly, since that data was not reported. Otherwise, the picture is of a school that is performing respectably in a growing, industrially active Ozarks town.
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