Summary:
The Dardanelle School District is home to a single high school, Dardanelle High School, which serves 686 students in grades 9 through 12 in a rural Arkansas community where nearly two-thirds of students come from low-income households.
Dardanelle High School shows a clear academic strength in STEM subjects, significantly outperforming the state average in Biology (54.0% proficient vs. 42.7% statewide) and Algebra (45.9% vs. 36.9%). However, the school slightly trails the state average in English Language Arts and Reading, creating a notable "STEM vs. literacy" gap. Geometry scores are a mixed story: 9th graders taking the subject perform very well (70.6% proficient), but 10th graders taking it drop to just 22.7% proficiency. The school's state ranking has been volatile, dropping from 26th place (91st percentile, 5 stars) in 2024-2025 to 64th place (78th percentile, 4 stars) in 2025-2026, likely driven by declines in literacy scores.
Despite serving a student body where 65.45% qualify for free or reduced lunch, the school maintains a strong graduation rate of 92.3% and an exceptionally low dropout rate of just 0.1%. A key resource is its very low student-teacher ratio of 7.7:1, which allows for small class sizes and individualized attention. The school also spends $12,184 per student. While the school's overall performance is solid, parents should note the disparity between strong STEM results and slightly below-average literacy scores, as well as the year-over-year decline in English and Reading proficiency that contributed to its drop in state ranking.
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