Texarkana School District

The Texarkana School District in Arkansas serves 7 schools—5 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school—all of which have 100% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, placing the district in the 20th percentile statewide with a 1-star rating.

The standout school is North Heights Community School, ranked in the 69th percentile (3 stars), where 56.4% of students are proficient in Math compared to the district average of 25.7% and the state average of 44.1%. In contrast, College Hill Harmony Leadership Academy is the lowest-performing school, ranked in the 6th percentile (0 stars), with only 15.7% proficiency in English Language Arts. Arkansas High School has a graduation rate of 89.1%, just below the state average, but its Algebra proficiency is critically low at 6.2% versus the state average of 36.9%. Spending varies from $13,197 at Edward D. Trice Elementary to $16,957 at Fairview Elementary, yet higher spending does not correlate with better performance—Edward D. Trice ranks higher (35th percentile) than Fairview (26th percentile). Student-teacher ratios are favorable, ranging from 8.6:1 at Arkansas High to 14.7:1 at Vera Kilpatrick Elementary.

The district consistently underperforms state averages by 10-18 percentage points in core subjects, and its ranking has declined from the 43rd percentile in 2023-2024 to the 20th percentile in 2025-2026. The success of North Heights Community School, despite serving a high-poverty population, proves that high performance is achievable and makes it a critical model for improvement. The massive gap between North Heights and College Hill Harmony Leadership Academy—for example, 54% proficiency in 4th Grade Reading at North Heights versus 16.1% at College Hill—suggests that factors like leadership and curriculum drive disparities beyond poverty. The district's declining trajectory and the severe Algebra weakness at Arkansas High highlight systemic challenges that need urgent attention.