Summary:
The city of Magazine, Arkansas, is served by the Magazine School District, which includes two small public schools: Magazine Elementary School (Pre-K through 6th grade) and Magazine High School (7th through 12th grade), with a combined enrollment of 524 students.
Magazine Elementary School is the stronger performer, earning a 3-star rating, and it features a standout 5th-grade cohort that dramatically outperforms state averages in every subject—by 20 to 27 percentage points in English, reading, math, and science. However, this success is not consistent across other elementary grades, which often score below state averages. In contrast, Magazine High School has a 1-star rating and shows a similar pattern: 7th graders excel, particularly in math (68.6% proficient vs. 44.2% statewide), but performance drops sharply in upper-level courses like Algebra and Geometry. The high school does boast a strong 92.6% graduation rate and a very low 0.8% dropout rate, along with an exceptionally low student-teacher ratio of 8.9:1, which suggests personalized attention.
Both schools serve a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students (76.6% at the elementary, 67.3% at the high school) and spend over $15,600 per student—well above national averages. Despite this high investment, both schools are on a declining performance trajectory, with the elementary dropping from the 82nd to the 51st percentile and the high school falling from the 50th to the 28th percentile over two years. The district’s mixed results highlight pockets of excellence, particularly in 5th and 7th grades, but overall academic performance remains average to below-average, making it a district with potential that has yet to be fully realized.
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