Summary:
The Mulberry Pleasant View Bi County School District in Arkansas is served by a single high school, Mulberry High School, a small rural institution for grades 9-12 with 130 students.
Mulberry High School presents a complex picture. On one hand, it offers an incredibly low student-teacher ratio of 5.7:1 and above-average per-student spending of $17,088, which are typically strong assets. However, the school faces profound challenges, with 100% of its students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. The most alarming trend is a steep academic decline: the school's state ranking has plummeted from the 54th percentile (3 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 11th percentile (1 star) in 2025-2026. Proficiency rates are critically low across all subjects, with math being a particular crisis—only 7.9% of students are proficient in Algebra and a mere 2.6% in Geometry, compared to state averages of 36.9% and 26.4%, respectively. English Language Arts proficiency stands at 17.5% (state: 39.4%), while Biology is a relative bright spot at 28.5% (state: 42.7%).
Despite these low test scores, the school maintains a graduation rate of 86.1% and a very low dropout rate of 0.7%. This disconnect suggests the school may be successfully moving students toward graduation without ensuring they have mastered grade-level academic content, raising questions about college and career readiness. The data indicates that the school's resources are likely being heavily directed toward addressing the significant socioeconomic needs of its student body, rather than driving high academic achievement. For parents, this school offers the benefit of small class sizes and individualized attention, but the recent, sharp decline in academic performance and extremely low proficiency rates, especially in math, are critical factors to consider.
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