The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in English language arts. The lowest is 28% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Buder Elem.
Buder Elementary sits in St. Ann, a mature northwest St. Louis County suburb that began as a 1940s housing development for defense plant workers. The city has no traditional downtown; its municipal life runs along St. Charles Rock Road, and it is served by two school districts. Buder belongs to the Ritenour School District. The community is built out, with recent energy going into redevelopment projects such as the Crossings at Northwest, which replaced the former Northwest Plaza mall. St. Ann borders Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, and major employers include Charter Communications and Save-a-Lot’s corporate headquarters. The housing market in the area around the school shows home values that are below the national benchmark, and rental costs, while not the county’s cheapest, remain relatively affordable for the region. The district brief did not turn up any recent referendums, tax shifts, or curriculum changes that would mark a new direction for families to weigh.
Buder is a regular public elementary school serving kindergarten through fifth grade. Its enrollment is large enough to fill six grade-level classes with a moderate number of sections per grade. The student body is diverse; no single race or ethnicity forms a majority. Around a quarter of the students are Black, roughly a quarter are white, and a similar share are Hispanic, with a notable proportion identifying as two or more races. The school reports that every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Buder in a context of universal economic need. Data on the share of students with an individualized education program or classified as English learners were not available in the record, so a family that wants to understand special education or language support offerings should ask the school directly.
State testing results from the Missouri Assessment Program are available for grades three through five in math and English language arts, and for grade five in science. In every tested subject and grade, the share of students scoring proficient or advanced falls below the midpoint among St. Louis County districts for overall proficiency. Reading across the three grades, math proficiency is strongest at third grade and declines in the upper grades. English language arts follows a similar pattern, with the highest proficiency at fifth grade and lower rates in third and fourth grades. Fifth-grade science proficiency also sits at a level that a parent may want to look into further with the school to understand how science instruction is structured in the intermediate grades. One thing to note: testing data is only one window, and the school serves younger children for whom these measures can fluctuate.
There is no graduation rate to report, and that is expected since Buder is an elementary school. Chronic absenteeism data also were not available in the record. The school is not a charter or magnet, and its current Title I status was not listed in the data, though the universal free-lunch qualification strongly suggests it receives federal Title I funding. No detailed program offerings, discipline data, or staffing ratios were included in the record, so families looking for specifics on enrichment, class size, or school climate will need to reach out to the school or the Ritenour district office.
Buder Elementary presents as a neighborhood school in a stable, built-out suburb with a high-need student population. Its testing picture is one where proficiency rates are modest relative to the county, which may reflect broader demographic and economic factors as much as anything happening in the classrooms. Families moving into the area should weigh the school’s diversity and community feel against the academic numbers and should verify current program offerings directly with the school.
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