Melbourne School District

The Melbourne School District in Arkansas is a small, high-performing district with two schools—Melbourne Elementary School (Pre-K through 6th grade) and Melbourne High School (7th through 12th grade)—serving 839 students and earning a 5-star rating, ranking 23rd out of 251 districts in the state.

Melbourne Elementary School is the clear standout, driving the district’s top ranking with exceptional academic performance. It significantly outperforms both district and state averages in every subject, particularly in Mathematics (66.4% proficient) and Science (69.4% proficient), and has shown remarkable year-over-year improvement, with its state ranking jumping from the 80th percentile to the 92nd percentile over three years. In contrast, Melbourne High School presents a more mixed picture: while it excels in Algebra (8th graders achieve a 92.4% proficiency rate), its overall test scores are generally above state averages but below the district average, and its state ranking has declined from the 95th to the 86th percentile. The high school also has an exceptionally low student-teacher ratio of 7:1, yet this does not translate into uniformly top-tier scores, suggesting other factors like curriculum or student engagement may be at play.

Key takeaways include a notable "elementary effect," where the elementary school’s strong foundation contrasts with the high school’s relative underperformance, especially in Science—where elementary students are 25.4 points above the state average, but high school students fall 5 points below it. The district spends generously per student ($13,356 at elementary, $12,645 at high school) and maintains low dropout rates (0.2%) with a graduation rate of 93.1%. For parents, this district offers a stellar elementary experience with rapid improvement, while the high school provides strong math acceleration for top students but may need targeted support in science and standard math courses to match the elementary school’s excellence.