The reported proficiency rate for Math is 15%.
Original Research by School Decision on Success Elem.
SUCCESS ELEM. serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade in the Success R-VI district, a regular public school in Texas County, Missouri. The school sits about a mile and a half south of the unincorporated crossroads community of Success, at a junction of two state highways in a rural, remote part of the Ozarks. The total enrollment is small for a PK-8 school, and the student body is almost entirely white. A very substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a high-poverty context.
The community is tiny. According to a local history blog, Success has a post office and a convenience store but “not much else.” Historically it had a hotel, drugstore, and multiple businesses in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but the proposed railroad through the town was never completed, and the original town site is now described as little more than a ghost town. The community was physically moved twice, first toward the planned railroad and later to the current Highway 17 and 32 junction. The school building was constructed in the early 1960s and has been expanded since. Today the school is widely considered the community’s main asset. High school students from the district attend nearby towns such as Houston, Plato, or Licking.
State assessment results for Success Elementary are largely suppressed, which is common for schools with very small tested enrollments where privacy rules prevent releasing data for groups under a minimum size. For nearly every grade level in math, English language arts, and science, the proficiency rate was not reported. The one exception is eighth-grade math, where a result was reported and shows that a modest share of students met the state’s proficiency standard. When the school’s overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades is compared with other districts in Texas County, it falls in the bottom quartile. A parent may want to follow up directly with the school to understand how individual students are progressing, since the available snapshot is limited.
Because this is a PK-8 school, there is no graduation rate and no offerings typical of high schools such as Advanced Placement, dual-credit courses, or career-technical pathways. The school’s academic program focuses on the elementary and middle grades. The school environment data, including discipline, staffing, chronic absenteeism, and attendance, were not available in the public data accessed.
Housing in the area, based on the ZIP code covering Success, is priced below the national median but close to the state median, with home values having risen at a rate faster than the national average in the recent period. The area has not seen notable new development or population growth, and the community’s long-term trajectory has been one of decline rather than expansion. The built environment is auto-dependent, with the school and the few other structures scattered along highway frontage rather than forming a walkable grid. No public parks, libraries, or public transit were found in search results.
Success Elementary fits a specific profile. It is a very small, rural school in a community that has shrunk over generations, serving a population with high economic need. The academic data is thin, and what exists points to low performance in the middle grades. Families considering this school should expect a close-knit environment where the school is the center of the community, but also a setting where academic benchmarks are limited and outcomes in the tested grades are below county averages. For parents who want a larger school with more curricular breadth, test data across many grades, or a more affluent peer context, this would not be a natural match.
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