Summary:
The city of Mabelvale, Arkansas, is served by four public schools within the Little Rock School District, which together educate 3,788 students from elementary through high school in a community facing profound economic challenges, with over 99% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch at every campus.
Among these schools, Chicot Elementary School stands out as the top performer, earning a 1-star rating while all other schools have 0 stars, and it leads the city in academic proficiency with 21.1% of students proficient in English Language Arts and 22.1% in mathematics. In contrast, Mabelvale Middle School shows the lowest overall proficiency rates in core subjects, yet presents a remarkable paradox with 42.9% of its students proficient in Algebra—nearly double the district average and exceeding the state average. Little Rock Southwest High School, the largest school with 2,045 students, faces the most significant challenges, including a graduation rate of just 72.1% and an 11.9% dropout rate, with only 5.1% of students proficient in Algebra and 2.4% in Geometry.
Key metrics reveal that per-student spending varies from $15,857 at Mabelvale Elementary School to $20,281 at Chicot Elementary, though higher spending does not guarantee success, as Little Rock Southwest High School spends $15,936 per student with the lowest student-teacher ratio of 12:1 yet remains the lowest-performing. All schools rank in the bottom 10% of their respective school types in Arkansas, and their rank histories show a consistent downward trend over the past three years. The near-universal poverty rate creates a systemic challenge, while the Algebra success at Mabelvale Middle School offers a potential blueprint for improvement, and the high school crisis at Little Rock Southwest High School represents the most urgent area for intervention.
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