Summary:
The De Queen School District is home to one middle school, Dequeen Middle School, which serves 354 students in grades 6 and 7 in a high-poverty area where nearly 78% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Dequeen Middle School stands out as a mathematics powerhouse, achieving a 58.5% proficiency rate in the 2025-2026 school year—14.4 percentage points above the state average of 44.1%. This strength is consistent across both grade levels, with 7th graders posting a 61.9% proficiency rate. The school also outperforms the state in Science, with a 47.7% proficiency rate compared to the state's 44%, driven largely by 7th graders who achieved 56.9% proficiency. However, the school falls below state averages in English Language Arts (36.1% vs. 39.4%) and Reading (38.3% vs. 40.4%), creating a clear contrast between STEM and literacy performance. The school's state ranking has fluctuated, reaching a high of 94th out of 335 schools in 2023-2024 before dropping to 136th and then rebounding to 117th out of 327 in 2025-2026.
Despite high poverty levels, the school shows resilience and improvement. From 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, proficiency rates rose across all subjects, with the most dramatic gains in Science (+12.4 points) and Reading (+7.5 points). A notable grade-level disparity exists, with 7th graders significantly outperforming 6th graders in Science (56.9% vs. 40.1%) and Math (61.9% vs. 55.8%), suggesting either a stronger curriculum at the 7th-grade level or a particularly strong cohort. With a student-teacher ratio of 14.8:1 and per-student spending of $11,495, the school demonstrates that effective instruction in mathematics can overcome socioeconomic barriers, offering a potential model for improving literacy outcomes.
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