The role of the government in creating standards from which curriculum was to be developed, caused states to realize a need for curriculum specific to the educational needs of students. In the 1990s, Missouri began the process of creating standards from which curriculum would be developed. Once the Common Core State Standards were created and adopted by states, political leaders and educational leaders in Missouri began to realize that Standards specific to the students in Missouri needed to be developed. A committee of politicians, educational leaders and parents began writing a new set of standards from which curriculum would be developed.

The committee created the Missouri Learning Standards. The Missouri Learning Standards with an increased emphasis in the English language Arts Standards. With the creation of the Missouri Learning Standards and the increased emphasis on the reading and writing standards, English Language Arts teachers in public middle school and high schools in Missouri perceived the increased rigor in the English Language Arts standards may impact the success of at-risk students.

The purpose of this study was to determine if English Language Arts teachers in Missouri public middle school and high schools perceived the new English Language Arts Standards may be impacting the success of at-risk students. Statistical analysis included Independent Sample Two-Tailed t-tests adjusted for unequal sample sizes at the p< 0.05 level, and ANOVA, and CrossTab analysis. The key findings gleaned from the data could be the basis for further research.