The top reported proficiency rate is 19% in English language arts. The lowest is 11% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Oak Ridge Elem.
Oak Ridge Elementary is a regular public school in the Oak Ridge R-VI district, serving students from prekindergarten through fifth grade. The village of Oak Ridge is a very small, rural community in northern Cape Girardeau County, with a population that declined slightly between the most recent censuses. The built environment is sparse and car-dependent, and the school campus sits near the village center, functioning as a central civic institution in a place where historic churches and the school itself serve as the primary anchors. The housing market in the broader area is broadly in line with state trends; the median home value in the ZIP code closely tracks the Missouri benchmark.
The school is small and predominantly white in its student composition, with a modest share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment fits the size of the community it serves. The district operates a single K-12 campus, so elementary students attend school in the same facility as older students. The district brief turned up no recent changes of lasting impact; there is no sign of major boundary shifts, program expansions, or consolidations in the publicly available record, so a parent should ask the district directly about any upcoming adjustments.
On the 2024-25 Missouri Assessment Program tests, Oak Ridge Elementary’s results show substantial room for growth in all three tested subjects. In third-grade math and English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above was very low. Fourth-grade math proficiency was modestly higher but still low, and fourth-grade English scores were suppressed from reporting, so no public result is available for that grade and subject. Fifth-grade math and English posted slightly higher proficiency rates but remained well below what is typical for a Missouri elementary school. In fifth-grade science, the pattern held. The school’s overall proficiency index, averaging across all tested grades and subjects, placed it in the bottom quartile of the five districts in Cape Girardeau County. This is a significant soft spot. The data shows a pattern of very low academic attainment for the grade levels tested, and a parent considering this school should look into this further with the school, asking about instruction, intervention strategies, and how the school supports students who are behind.
Because the school serves only through fifth grade, there is no four-year graduation rate or chronic absenteeism rate to report. Those outcomes will be captured at the high school level. The school itself does not offer advanced courses, career pathways, or dual credit, as those typically begin in secondary grades. A family looking at Oak Ridge Elementary for early grades should understand that the peer group will be very small and the community is tight-knit and rural. The school has no charter or magnet designation and is a regular public school.
For a family that prioritizes a small, community-rooted elementary experience in a stable rural village, this school may fit. For a family whose primary concern is academic proficiency as measured by state tests, the results are clearly below expectations when set against the rest of the county. The absence of recent district-level changes means there is no notable disruption or reform to weigh; the school appears to be operating as it has. A parent should visit, talk to the principal about the curriculum and support systems, and look at the school’s own local data for trends that may not show in a single test year.
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