Green Forest School District

The Green Forest School District in Arkansas is a small, unified district of three schools serving approximately 1,425 students from Pre-K through 12th grade, and it currently holds a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger, ranking 160th out of 251 districts in the state.

Among the three schools, Green Forest Elementary School stands out as the strongest performer, particularly in mathematics, where 53.2% of 3rd graders were proficient in the 2025-2026 school year—nearly 9 percentage points above the state average. In contrast, Green Forest Intermed School faces significant challenges, with consistent underperformance across all subjects and grade levels, never meeting or exceeding state averages. The most dramatic drop occurs in 6th grade, where proficiency in English Language Arts (23.9%) and Reading (24.0%) lags behind state averages by 10-17 percentage points. Green Forest High School presents a paradox: while 9th graders perform above state averages in Reading (44.7%) and Biology (80%), 10th graders fall far behind, and the school's graduation rate of 75.8% is alarmingly low compared to the state average of 90.1%.

Key metrics reveal a district-wide decline over time, with all three schools dropping in percentile rankings since 2023-2024. The district lags behind state averages in every core subject, including English Language Arts (33.8% vs. 39.4%), Reading (34.3% vs. 40.4%), Mathematics (41.4% vs. 44.1%), and Science (35.0% vs. 44.0%). Interestingly, spending and student-teacher ratios do not correlate with performance—the high school has the highest per-student spending ($13,569) and lowest student-teacher ratio (5.9:1), yet struggles the most with graduation and advanced subjects. This suggests that the district's challenges stem from deeper issues like curriculum alignment and cumulative learning gaps rather than a lack of resources.