Smackover Norphlet School District

The Smackover Norphlet School District in Arkansas is a small, unified district of three schools serving 1,208 students from Pre-K through 12th grade, and it holds a 3-star rating, ranking 91st out of 251 districts in the state.

The standout school is Smackover Elementary School, which is the highest-ranked school in the district (67th percentile) and consistently outperforms both district and state averages in all core subjects. It is the primary driver of the district's overall positive performance, despite having the highest student-teacher ratio (17.8:1). In contrast, Norphlet Middle School is the lowest-performing school, holding a 2-star rating for three consecutive years and scoring below state averages in most subjects. The most dramatic story is Smackover High School, which jumped from a 1-star to a 3-star rating in a single year, likely driven by its extremely low student-teacher ratio of 5.2:1, though its test scores remain mixed and below state averages in key areas like Geometry (10.6% proficient vs. 26.4% state).

A critical issue is the "middle school slump," where academic performance drops sharply between elementary and middle school—for example, 5th-grade Math proficiency at Norphlet is 61.8%, but 6th-grade Math plummets to 30.3%. This is compounded by the fact that the middle school receives the least per-student funding ($12,079) compared to the elementary ($14,530) and high school ($14,821), suggesting a potential misalignment of resources. The high school boasts a strong graduation rate of 91.5% and a low dropout rate of 1.7%, while the elementary school serves as a model of success despite a moderate level of economic disadvantage. The district's overall rank is largely carried by the elementary school, and improving middle school performance could significantly boost the district's standing.