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Best kept secret on campus at SOUTHWEST ELEM.?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
439
Elementary
DISTRICT 381 · STATE 315
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·LAWSON R-XIV·NCES 291822000964
SOUTHWEST ELEM.
307 W MOSS ST, LAWSON, MO 64062 · (816) 580-7272 · Ray County
GRADES PK–04ELEMENTARY42-RURALREGULAR SCHOOL439 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.4:1
33 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.9:1 · STATE 12.4:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
27%
120 students
DISTRICT 24% · STATE 54%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade
Student demographics
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Based on grade levels within LAWSON R-XIV. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
MO DVT (Growth) 2024-25 . Growth Percentile vs PeersEnglish Language Arts
25.0%
MO avg 49.5% . -47.0pp since 2023
Math
21.0%
MO avg 48.7% . -5.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the MO DVT (Growth), Missouri's statewide test, about 25 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 21 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Missouri schools, those numbers are about 50 and 49. Reading and writing scores are down about 47 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 5 points.
Source: MO DVT (Growth). All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
36.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
50.8%
based on MO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 36% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 51% typical for Missouri schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Missouri's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
7-year change
SY 2017-18 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
439
+28 (+7%) vs 2017
Student : Teacher
13.4:1
was 13.5:1
% White
100%
was 97%
% Hispanic
0%
was 3%
% Black
0%
was 0%
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
About SOUTHWEST ELEM.
SOUTHWEST ELEM. is an elementary school of mid-sized scale in LAWSON, Missouri, overseen by LAWSON R-XIV, serveing 439 students in grades pre-K through 4. Enrollment runs roughly 39% bigger than the state mean of about 315.
Within LAWSON R-XIV, which oversees 3 schools and 1,143 students, SOUTHWEST ELEM. is one campus in the system.
Looking at the student body, SOUTHWEST ELEM. records that the student body is overwhelmingly White (100%).
In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.4:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 12.4:1 average. About 27% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Ray County (around 39%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.
On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), SOUTHWEST ELEM. tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 50.8% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 36.0%.
Zooming out to the county, census data for Ray County shows median household income runs about $74,573, about 16% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. SOUTHWEST ELEM. is one of 12 public schools in Ray County (combined enrollment of about 3,423 students).
LAWSON HIGH is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 3 other public schools cluster around SOUTHWEST ELEM.. On composite proficiency, SOUTHWEST ELEM. comes 5th of 7 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 42.4%.
The campus sits in a countryside setting.
Trend over the last 7 years. SOUTHWEST ELEM.'s enrollment has increased 7% since 2018, when it stood at 411 (now 439).
On the community side, members of the SOUTHWEST ELEM. community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Ray County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
23,145
Census ACS
Median income
$74,573
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
16%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
9%
Below federal line
Schools in county
12
3,423 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in LAWSON R-XIV
- LAWSON HIGHHigh · 362 students
- LAWSON MIDDLEMiddle · 342 students
Other schools in LAWSON
- LAWSON HIGHHigh · 362 students
- LAWSON MIDDLEMiddle · 342 students
- WATKINS MILL PARK CAMPHigh · 46 students
Nearby schools
- LAWSON HIGH0.8 mi · 362
- LAWSON MIDDLE0.8 mi · 342
- WATKINS MILL PARK CAMP3.8 mi · 46
- EXCELSIOR SPRINGS HIGH6.2 mi · 764
- EXCELSIOR SPRINGS EAR CHLD CTR6.2 mi · 151
- EXCELSIOR SPRINGS MIDDLE6.3 mi · 540
Frequently asked questions
About SOUTHWEST ELEM.How large is SOUTHWEST ELEM.?
SOUTHWEST ELEM. enrolls approximately 439 students in grades PK-04.
What grades does SOUTHWEST ELEM. serve?
SOUTHWEST ELEM. serves grades PK-04.
How many teachers does SOUTHWEST ELEM. have?
SOUTHWEST ELEM. employs 33 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.4:1.
What is the student diversity at SOUTHWEST ELEM.?
Student demographics at SOUTHWEST ELEM. are roughly 100% White.
What district is SOUTHWEST ELEM. in?
SOUTHWEST ELEM. is part of LAWSON R-XIV.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.