Summary:
The Huntsville School District in Arkansas contains two high schools—Huntsville High School (serving grades 9-12 with 581 students) and St. Paul High School (serving grades 7-12 with 120 students)—and the district as a whole ranks in the lower half of the state, earning a 2-star rating.
St. Paul High School stands out as the more stable and higher-performing school within the district, despite its smaller size and higher rate of economic disadvantage. While Huntsville High School has seen a dramatic decline in its state ranking—falling from the 61st percentile to the 24th percentile over two years—St. Paul has remained consistently in the 40th-49th percentile range. St. Paul also outperforms Huntsville High in key academic areas, particularly in 9th-grade English Language Arts and Reading, where proficiency rates are significantly above both district and state averages. Additionally, St. Paul boasts a remarkably low dropout rate of 0.9%, compared to Huntsville High's 3.1%, indicating strong student retention. However, St. Paul's graduation rate (81.8%) is lower than Huntsville High's (88.2%), suggesting that while students stay enrolled, they may face challenges meeting all graduation requirements.
A major concern for both schools is math performance. While St. Paul outperforms Huntsville High in Algebra (31.3% vs. 18.4%), both schools fall well below the state average of 36.9%. Geometry scores are particularly weak, with St. Paul at 12% and Huntsville High at 11.8%, compared to the state average of 26.4%. This points to a systemic weakness in advanced math instruction across the district. St. Paul also spends significantly more per student ($17,255 vs. $12,266), which correlates with better stability and some academic strengths, but has not yet translated into a top-tier ranking. Both schools benefit from favorable student-teacher ratios (around 7:1), allowing for potentially more individualized instruction.
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