In the 1785 Land Ordinance Act, the U.S. Congress laid the foundation for the organization of schools and land: each township (6x6 miles) should grant the 16th section (1 square mile) to the state for the use of a school for the inhabitants. The Missouri Constitution of 1820 specified that one school or more should be established in each township of the state, and the township became the unit for school organization. However, acts of the Missouri General Assembly in 1835, 1839, and 1853 resulted in the school district becoming the unit of organization. In 1866 to 1874, the township was again used until 1874, when the main features of the rural school system were established, with a local school district set up to be administered by a board of three directors. 

 

In 1969, the Missouri General Assembly passed a bill and the Governor signed the bill that would eliminate the three-director school district by July 1, 1973. Within one year from the signing date (August 25, 1969), all non-operating school districts merged with a six-director district, and within three years from that date, all operating three-director districts merged with an operating six-director district. After the closing of many one-teacher schools and consolidation, a reorganization of the school system occurred in Nodaway County in the 1950s. By 1958-59, there were only nine one-teacher schools and two two-teacher schools. When the last one-teacher school in Nodaway County closed its doors in 1960, the rural school district disappeared along with the one room school house, eliminating a system in use for over a hundred years.