Original Research by School Decision on Swedeborg Elem.
Swedeborg Elementary serves the rural community of Richland, Missouri, from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The school belongs to the Swedeborg R-III district, a small K-8 district in Pulaski County. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet institution. The elementary building is the only school in the district, meaning students who continue to high school would transfer to a neighboring district for ninth through twelfth grades. We looked for recent district changes that might affect families and found no parent-relevant developments to report.
Richland is a small Ozarks town that spans three counties. The population has been stable in recent years, with a slight decline recorded in the 2020 census, though a subsequent estimate suggests a possible rebound. The town sits on a ridge north of the Gasconade River and has convenient access to Interstate 44. The civic center runs along Washington Avenue, where City Hall occupies the former Richland High School building, a Works Progress Administration project from the 1940s. The city operates its own utilities and maintains an industrial park with a municipal airport. Local employment is anchored by healthcare facilities, the Richland R-IV School District, and the nearby Fort Leonard Wood military installation. Home values fall well below the national median, and the cost of living is low.
The student body at Swedeborg Elementary is small. The enrollment is spread across all grades from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, with the largest groups in the middle grades. By race and ethnicity, the student population is predominantly white. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that many families in the community have lower household incomes. We looked for data on students receiving special education services and English learner support but did not find it; this gap likely reflects the small size of the school.
State testing data for the most recent school year is suppressed for both math and English language arts at the fifth-grade and eighth-grade levels, and for science at those same grades. Suppression typically occurs when the number of tested students in a group is very small, as it is here. Because the school is small, the state withholds proficiency rates to protect student privacy. This means that a parent cannot read a clear statewide benchmark for how students at this school performed on the Missouri Assessment Program. A parent wanting a fuller picture of academic performance would need to ask the school or district directly about local assessments or classroom progress.
The school does not serve high school grades, so it has no graduation rate. The comparison fact-set that places this school against other districts in Pulaski County was not usable for the proficiency index or the chronic absenteeism rate because the entity-level values were missing.
Swedeborg Elementary offers a straightforward setting for families who want a small, rural school environment from early childhood through middle school. The absence of high school grades means that a family living in the Swedeborg district must plan for a transition to a different district for ninth grade. The community itself is affordable and quiet, with basic municipal services and limited commercial development. A parent considering this school should expect a very small student body, a close-knit atmosphere, and a need to seek out detailed academic performance information directly from the school, since the state's public reporting is suppressed for privacy reasons.
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