Education
The Springfield Public School District is the largest district in the state of Missouri with an official fall 2011 enrollment of 24,366 students attending 50 schools. Public high schools include Central High School, Kickapoo High School, Hillcrest High School, Parkview High School, and Glendale High School. Private high schools include Springfield Sudbury School, Summit Preparatory School, Greenwood Laboratory School, New Covenant Academy, Springfield Lutheran School, Springfield Catholic High School, Christian Schools of Springfield, and Grace Classical Academy.
Springfield has several colleges and universities within the city. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, Missouri State University (MSU) is the state's second largest university with just over 20,000 students.[33]For the seventh consecutive year, MSU has been selected for The Princeton Review's 2010 list of "Best Colleges: Region by Region." Drury University is a private university with nearly 5,000 students[34] and consistently ranks in U.S. News & World Report's Top 10 Universities in the Midwest.[35] Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) is the second largest college in the city of Springfield, having more than 15,000 students in attendance.[36]MSU, Drury, and OTC are all located in and around downtown Springfield. Other colleges in Springfield include Baptist Bible College, Evangel University and Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, and Cox College (Nursing and Allied Health). Branch campuses in Springfield include Mercy College of Nursing and Health Sciences of Southwest Baptist University,[37] Everest College, Columbia College, Webster University, and University of Phoenix. In 2013, a consolidation of Central Bible College, the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, and Evangel University occurred and is now known as Evangel University.
