Summary:
The Charleston School District in Arkansas is home to a single high school, Charleston High School, which serves 410 students in grades 7 through 12 and offers a compelling story of academic resilience and targeted strengths.
Charleston High School has shown a dramatic recovery, jumping from a 170th-place state ranking in the 2024-2025 school year to 86th in 2025-2026, placing it back in the top quartile of Arkansas high schools. This rebound is supported by a strong 93.9% graduation rate, well above the state average, and an exceptionally low student-teacher ratio of 6.3:1, which allows for significant individualized attention. The school excels in Science, with 51.5% of students proficient in the 2025-2026 school year, outpacing the state average of 44%. However, a notable and persistent weakness is Geometry, where proficiency rates (18.8%) have consistently fallen below state averages (26.4%), suggesting a specific curriculum or instructional challenge rather than a broad STEM issue.
Key metrics reveal a school with both volatility and potential. While Mathematics proficiency dropped from 49.2% to 43.9% year-over-year, English Language Arts saw a strong jump from 24.1% to 38.9%. The school also shows a paradox in math: 8th-grade Algebra proficiency (55.5%) trails the state average (73.9%), yet 9th-grade Algebra scores (31.3%) significantly exceed the state average (25.3%), indicating that different student cohorts perform at very different levels. With 39.27% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch and a per-student spending of $11,216, Charleston High School leverages its low student-teacher ratio to achieve strong graduation rates and standout science performance, making its Geometry struggles an area for focused improvement.
Thank you for your feedback!