Yellville Summit School District

The Yellville Summit School District in Arkansas serves 1,041 students across three schools—Yellville-Summit Elementary School, Yellville-Summit Middle School, and Yellville-Summit High School—and has earned a 4-star rating, ranking in the top 20% of Arkansas districts despite serving a population where over 98% of students are economically disadvantaged.

Yellville-Summit High School is the district's standout performer, showing a remarkable 24-percentage-point leap in state ranking over two years to reach the 85th percentile. It excels in advanced subjects, with Geometry proficiency 14.6 points above the state average, driven by an extraordinary 91.3% proficiency rate among 9th graders in accelerated coursework. In contrast, Yellville-Summit Elementary School provides a consistent academic foundation, particularly in Math, where overall proficiency (60.6%) is 16.5 points above the state average, and in Science. Yellville-Summit Middle School shows a concerning decline in ranking, dropping from the 84th to the 65th percentile, with below-average English Language Arts scores in 5th and 6th grades, though it maintains strength in 8th-grade Math and Science.

Key metrics reveal a resource allocation paradox: the high school has a very low student-teacher ratio of 3.9:1, while the elementary school achieves strong results with a high ratio of 19.3:1. The district's graduation rate is 88.7%, slightly below the state average, and per-student spending averages around $13,543. The most compelling takeaway is the district's ability to achieve top-tier performance despite near-universal economic disadvantage, suggesting effective vertical alignment from elementary to high school. However, the middle school slump—particularly in early grades—represents a critical area for targeted improvement to ensure all students thrive.