The Southeast Missourian's rating

Every December, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requires each school district in the state to publish a school report card.

The report cards include a variety of data indicators, from attendance rates and salary information to dropout rates, test scores and disciplinary action, all intended to give the public a standard to measure success within every individual school.

The Southeast Missourian compared the results of six indicators from the 2003-2004 report cards -- student attendance, student/teacher ratio, student/administrator ratio, advanced degrees among teachers, teacher experience and student performance on state tests -- among 37 elementary and secondary schools in 13 local school districts.

The top three schools with the best data in each of those six indicators were narrowed down through two additional indicators: low-income student population and number of classes taught by fully certified teachers.

Through that process, Blanchard Elementary School in the Cape Girardeau School District was selected for having the "best" report card among Southeast Missouri schools for the 2003-2004 school year.

Other schools that landed in the top six for those indicators were Jackson High School, Jefferson Elementary, Meadow Heights High School, Zalma High School and Leopold Elementary.

-- Southeast Missourian