Cleveland County School District

The Cleveland County School District in Arkansas is a small, rural district serving 741 students across two schools: Rison Elementary School (Pre-K through 6th grade) and Rison High School (7th through 12th grade), both located on a single campus.

The district earns a solid 3-star rating, ranking 94th out of 251 districts in Arkansas, but the two schools present very different academic profiles. Rison Elementary School is the more consistent performer, holding a stable 3-star rating for three years. It excels in English Language Arts (46.6% proficient) and Reading (50.5% proficient), both well above state averages, but struggles in Mathematics (40.8%) and Science (41.3%). In contrast, Rison High School shows a dramatic split: it outperforms the state in Math (51.7%) and Science (58%), yet lags in English Language Arts (34.8%) and Reading (37.8%). This "inverted performance" pattern suggests a potential disconnect in curriculum focus between the two schools. The high school also experienced a sharp ranking drop from the 83rd percentile (4-star) to the 43rd percentile (2-star) in just two years, a major concern for parents.

Despite these challenges, the high school boasts a very low student-teacher ratio of 9.4:1 and higher per-student spending ($13,448 vs. $12,200 at the elementary level), along with a strong 94.6% graduation rate and a 0.9% dropout rate. The elementary school serves a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students (74.47% free/reduced lunch) compared to the high school (63.38%). For parents, the district offers a stable elementary foundation in literacy, but the high school's volatility and contrasting strengths in STEM versus literacy require careful consideration when planning for the long term.