Missouri model emphasizes 'performance districts' and thresholds for supplemental weightings

Matthew Willis presented Missouri’s school finance approach, which centers on a designated set of “performance districts” used to determine key thresholds and the state adequacy target.

Missouri’s model computes funding by taking weighted average daily attendance, multiplying it by a state adequacy target (initially $6,117, recalculated biennially from operating expenditures of performance districts and reported as $6,375 in more recent calculations), applying a dollar-value modifier to reflect regional cost differences and subtracting local effort. Supplemental weightings are triggered by district shares that exceed statewide thresholds: free-and-reduced counts over 31.95% attract a 0.25 multiplier for the excess; special-education counts over a threshold (presenter cited 13.11%) attract a 0.75 multiplier for the excess; ELL counts over 2.29% attract a 0.6 multiplier for the excess. Willis said the state limits the number of performance districts to 25% of districts and that thresholds are derived by averaging the middle 90% of performance districts (excluding top and bottom 5%).

The presentation noted that the model relies on regional wage and cost indices in the dollar-value modifier and that local effort calculations reference local tax revenues and prior-year baselines. Committee members asked for clarification about how a district becomes a performance district and whether the performance-district cap can bind if many districts meet standards; staff said they would follow up with details about criteria and operations of the performance-district list.