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Sparta, Missouri - 4 schools
An equity score of 22/100 ranks Sparta R-Iii #405 of 432 districts in Missouri (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $9,064 per pupil, Sparta R-Iii ranks #545 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
747
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$9,064
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Sparta R-Iii operates 4 public schools serving 747 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 1 high, 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Christian County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $9,064 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 55 of 549 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 37.2% local, 43.6% state, and 19.2% 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 22/100, ranked #405 of 432 in Missouri against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
a 225.7:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 26.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.8% White, 0.9% Hispanic or Latino, 0.4% Asian across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Sparta High, with a diversity index of 14.2/100.
Its largest campus is Sparta Elem., enrolling 263 students (36% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Sparta Prek Center, at 57 students, a 5x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Sparta Elem. accounts for 35.2% of all Sparta R-Iii student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Sparta R-Iii-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: elementary. 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.
Sparta R-Iii school enrollment varies 4.6× across entities
Sparta R-Iii school enrollment ranges from 57 students (lowest) to 263 students (highest), a spread of 206 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Sparta R-Iii student-counselor ratio is 226:1 — low (typically associated with meeting or exceeding the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommended 250:1 benchmark, which correlates with stronger college and career counseling capacity)
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 Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Sparta R-Iii chronic absenteeism rate is 26.2% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
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 Variation between sub-units within Sparta R-Iii is typically wider than the Sparta R-Iii-aggregate figure suggests.