Mountain Home School District

The Mountain Home School District in Arkansas serves approximately 3,817 students across six schools, from Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade, and is ranked 85th out of 251 districts in the state with a 3-star rating.

The district's standout performer is Pinkston Middle School, which ranks in the top 11% of Arkansas middle schools (36th out of 327) with a 4-star rating and consistently outperforms both district and state averages in every subject, especially Mathematics (60.5% proficient vs. 44.1% state) and Science (55.1% vs. 44% state). In contrast, Guy Berry College And Career Academy, a small alternative school for grades 6-12 with only 52 students, struggles significantly with a 1-star rating, critically low proficiency rates (e.g., 6.3% in Science), a high dropout rate of 8.7%, and a low graduation rate of 76.6%. The district's primary high school, Mountain Home Career Academies, serves as a solid benchmark with a 3-star rating, strong Algebra proficiency (52.8% vs. 36.9% state), a very low dropout rate of 0.3%, and a graduation rate of 92.1%. Among elementary schools, Hackler Intermediate School (grades 3-5) has the lowest per-student spending ($10,360) but still earns a 3-star rating and outperforms state averages, while Mountain Home Kindergarten has the highest spending ($13,607) and the highest percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch (51.33%) among elementary schools.

A key takeaway is the extreme performance gap between the two high schools, suggesting the district faces challenges in serving its most vulnerable students at Guy Berry. Mathematics emerges as a district-wide strength, with schools like Nelson Wilks Herron Elementary also showing solid math performance. The data also reveals that higher spending does not guarantee better outcomes, as Hackler Intermediate achieves strong results with the lowest per-student cost. Overall, the district builds a strong academic foundation in elementary schools, which is amplified at Pinkston Middle School, but this positive trajectory does not extend to the alternative high school.