Eureka Springs School District

The Eureka Springs School District in Arkansas is a small, unified district serving 640 students across three schools: Eureka Springs Elementary School (PK-4), Eureka Springs Middle School (5-8), and Eureka Springs High School (9-12).

The district is high-performing overall, ranking in the 88th percentile of Arkansas districts, but performance varies significantly by school. Eureka Springs High School is a standout, consistently earning a 5-star rating and ranking in the top 15-20% of Arkansas high schools. It boasts a 92.8% graduation rate, a very low dropout rate of 0.9%, and excels in Biology (58.1% proficient vs. 42.7% state) and Geometry (42.5% proficient vs. 26.4% state). Its success is driven by a highly favorable student-teacher ratio of 8.2:1, allowing for personalized attention. Eureka Springs Elementary School is another pillar of strength, consistently earning a 4-star rating and ranking in the top 20% of Arkansas elementary schools. It outperforms state averages across all core subjects, particularly in Science (63.1% proficient vs. 44% state), and has the highest per-student spending in the district at $17,900. In contrast, Eureka Springs Middle School is the district's weakest link, with its ranking declining sharply from a 5-star school to a 3-star school. Its proficiency rates in ELA (39.3%) and Reading (41.6%) fall below the district average, and 7th grade is a particular area of struggle.

Key takeaways include a clear "middle school slump" that warrants district intervention, and an inverse relationship between spending and performance—the elementary school spends the most and performs best, while the middle school spends less and struggles, yet the high school achieves top results with similar spending to the middle school. Science is a district-wide strength, with all three schools exceeding state averages. However, math performance is bifurcated: general math is strong in elementary and middle school, but Algebra proficiency at the high school is a major weakness at just 25%, far below the state average of 36.9%. This suggests a critical pipeline issue that may impact future success in advanced math and science.