Summary:
The Arkadelphia School District serves 1,877 students across three schools—Peake Elementary School (grades K-4), Goza Middle School (grades 5-8), and Arkadelphia High School (grades 9-12)—in a mid-sized Arkansas community where economic disadvantage is high, with 47% to 68% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
Peake Elementary School is the district's standout academic leader, earning a 3-star rating (51st percentile) and consistently outperforming both the district and state averages in ELA and Reading. It has shown remarkable improvement, jumping from a 1-star school in 2023-2024 to its current rating. In contrast, Goza Middle School faces the greatest challenges, with a 2-star rating (38th percentile) and test scores significantly below state averages—only 23% of 5th graders are proficient in Math versus the state's 45%. However, Goza has a notable bright spot: 77.5% of its 8th graders taking Algebra are proficient, exceeding the state average of 73.9%. Arkadelphia High School operates most efficiently, with the lowest student-teacher ratio (7.5:1) and highest per-student spending ($12,844), yet its graduation rate of 79.8% is 10.3 points below the state average of 90.1%.
Key metrics reveal a spending paradox at the high school, where higher resources don't translate to better outcomes, and a split in academic performance: Biology scores exceed the state average (45% vs. 42.7%), but only 20.3% of students are proficient in Algebra and just 5% in Geometry. The district's overall rank has slightly improved from the 42nd to the 47th percentile. Peake Elementary's turnaround—driven by a 23-percentile-point jump in two years—offers a potential model for improvement, particularly for Goza Middle School, which struggles in general math despite its advanced Algebra success.
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