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Carthage, Missouri - 10 schools
An equity score of 58/100 ranks Carthage R-Ix #155 of 432 districts in Missouri (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,140 per pupil, Carthage R-Ix ranks #346 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
5,092
Total Enrollment
10
Schools
$11,140
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Carthage R-Ix operates 10 public schools serving 5,092 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 5 elementary, 2 middle, 2 combined, 1 high schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Jasper County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,140 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 36.2% local, 46.4% state, and 17.3% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 58/100, ranked #155 of 432 in Missouri against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 10 schools offering Advanced Placement (8 AP courses district-wide), a 336.7:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 12.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 50.1% White, 44.3% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Carthage 6th Grade Center, with a diversity index of 54.6/100.
Its largest campus is Carthage High School, enrolling 1,626 students (32% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Early Childhood and Pat Center, at 116 students, a 14x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Carthage High School accounts for 31.9% of all Carthage R-Ix student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Carthage R-Ix-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Carthage R-Ix school enrollment varies 14× across entities
Carthage R-Ix school enrollment ranges from 116 students (lowest) to 1,626 students (highest), a spread of 1,510 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Carthage R-Ix has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 57.2% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Carthage R-Ix student-counselor ratio is 337:1 — near the typical range (US average ~408) — within the typical range for U.S. public districts
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Variation between sub-units within Carthage R-Ix is typically wider than the Carthage R-Ix-aggregate figure suggests.
Carthage R-Ix chronic absenteeism rate is 12.0% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.