Original Research by School Decision on Macon Co. High
Macon County High in New Cambria is a small, regular public school serving grades six through twelve as part of the Macon County R-IV school district. With a total enrollment that is very small for a combined middle and high school, the student body is overwhelmingly white, with a small number of Asian, Hispanic, and multiracial students represented. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school sits in a deeply rural, contracting community, and the data shows that the district had no major parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, referendums, or new programs in recent years.
New Cambria itself is a very small community shaped by railroad and agricultural heritage, with a population that has declined steadily over multiple census counts. Housing values in the area, based on the zip-code-level data, fall notably below the national median, and the typical home is priced slightly under the Missouri statewide median. The cost of living is low, and most residents commute to nearby towns like Macon or Brookfield for employment, as no major local employers were identified. The town is not experiencing growth; it is a contracting rural setting where families are likely rooted in farming, the railroad, or commuting for work.
On state testing, the picture is incomplete. For the most recent assessment year, results for math and English language arts in grades six and seven were suppressed, meaning the test-taking groups were too small to report a proficiency figure publicly. The same applied to science at grade eight. The small cohort sizes are a direct consequence of the school’s enrollment, which in some grades has single-digit student counts. A parent looking at academic performance will find no published state test proficiency rates for any grade or subject at this school, so it is not possible to gauge overall academic attainment from that data. The school has no reported graduation rate, but the grade band runs through grade twelve; the data did not include that metric, so it is left as a gap.
Because the enrollment is so small, nearly every metric that relies on aggregate counts faces suppression or absence. The school does not have reported chronic absenteeism data, discipline data, or course access information. It is not a charter or magnet school, and its Title I status was not stated in the data. For a family considering this school, the essential facts are its rural setting, tiny size, and the lack of published testing or outcome data. The school may offer individualized attention and a close-knit environment, standard in a school where the entire secondary program fits in a single building with enrollment that small. At the same time, a parent who wants to compare academic performance against other schools will find no numbers to work with. Asking the district or school directly about recent assessment trends, course offerings, and graduation outcomes would be a necessary step, because the public record available here does not supply them. Relative to other districts in Macon County, the comparison set could not place this school on proficiency, graduation, or absenteeism because the data is missing.
For a family that values a very small, rural school with a single campus for all secondary grades, and that is comfortable with the limited publicly available performance data, Macon County High fits a specific niche. The housing market is affordable relative to state and national norms, and the community is quiet and low-density. The trade-off is that there is little to go on from the state’s own reporting to judge academic performance, and the district shows no recent public upgrades, program expansions, or notable changes.
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