Summary:
The Decatur School District in Arkansas contains a single middle school, Decatur Middle School, which serves 162 students in grades 5 through 8.
Decatur Middle School has consistently ranked in the bottom 20% of Arkansas middle schools over the past three years, with its highest rank being 271 out of 327 schools. The school faces significant challenges, as 100% of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a key indicator of high poverty. Despite spending $12,388 per student—a substantial amount for a small, rural district—and maintaining an excellent student-teacher ratio of 11.6:1, overall proficiency rates remain well below state averages. In the 2025-2026 school year, only 25.3% of students were proficient in English Language Arts (state: 39.4%), 27.3% in Reading (state: 40.4%), 25.4% in Mathematics (state: 44.1%), and 29.1% in Science (state: 44.0%).
There are some encouraging signs of progress. From the 2024-2025 to the 2025-2026 school year, proficiency rates improved in every subject, with Mathematics and Science both jumping by 11.3 percentage points. However, a notable concern is a "7th grade slump" in Reading, where proficiency dropped to just 20.5%, making it the lowest-performing grade-subject combination. Conversely, 8th grade Science stands out as a relative bright spot, with 38.7% of students proficient—much closer to the state average of 42.9% than any other subject. This 18.1 percentage point gap between 7th and 8th grade Science performance is a major anomaly worth investigating, as it may reveal effective teaching practices that could be replicated across the school.
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