NCES CCD 2024-25 12 schools MO

Best-Resourced Schools in Poplar Bluff, MO

Compiled from official source data by .

12 public K-12 schools in Poplar Bluff from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
12
Schools
5,006
Students
42.8/100
Avg Resource Index
11.8:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Poplar Bluff has more public-school enrollment than 55% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Poplar Bluff sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

6 of Poplar Bluff's 12 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 1 middle and 1 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 27-point gap between Oak Grove Elem. and Poplar Bluff Early Childhood C shows the range hidden by Poplar Bluff's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 45%
School count
Top 31%
Resource Index average
60th percentile
Teacher staffing
90th percentile

Poplar Bluff High accounts for 28.3% of all Poplar Bluff public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Poplar Bluff-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Poplar Bluff school enrollment varies 101× across entities

Poplar Bluff school enrollment ranges from 14 students (lowest) to 1,416 students (highest), a spread of 1,402 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Poplar Bluff reports 71.1% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Poplar Bluff student-teacher ratio is 11.8:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Oak Grove Elem. 55
2. W. E. Sears Youth Ctr. 54
3. Lake Road Elem. 53
4. O'neal Elem. 51
5. Sierra-Osage Treatment Ctr. 51
6. Poplar Bluff Jr. High 43
7. Eugene Field Elem. 42
8. Poplar Bluff Middle School 38
9. Shady Grove School 35
10. Poplar Bluff Kindergarten Ctr. 33
11. Poplar Bluff High 31
12. Poplar Bluff Early Childhood C 28

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Poplar Bluff

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Eugene Field Elem. 54.3/100
  2. 2 Lake Road Elem. 48.4/100
  3. 3 W. E. Sears Youth Ctr. 47.6/100
  4. 4 O'neal Elem. 43.5/100
  5. 5 Poplar Bluff Kindergarten Ctr. 42.7/100

What do families ask about schools in Poplar Bluff?

Which Poplar Bluff school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Oak Grove Elem. has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Poplar Bluff schools in this federal-data comparison at 55/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Poplar Bluff, MO? ▼

Poplar Bluff has 12 public schools with a total enrollment of 5,006 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 11.8:1.

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Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Missouri →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.