McGehee High School

McGehee High School is a public high school serving grades 9-12 with a total enrollment of 324 students in McGehee, Arkansas, which is part of the McGehee School District.

Despite spending $12,292 per student, which is slightly higher than nearby Dumas High School and Dermott High School, McGehee High School consistently underperforms the state average in standardized test scores across all subjects and grade levels. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, only 19.9% of students were proficient or better in English Language Arts, compared to the state average of 34.7%, and only 15.3% were proficient or better in math, compared to the state average of 30.9%. Additionally, the school has a high student-teacher ratio, ranging from 11.3 to 12.1 over the past few years, which is higher than the nearby Dumas High School (8.1) and Dermott High School (5.8).

McGehee High School has a 100% free and reduced lunch rate, indicating a high level of economic disadvantage among its student population. This socioeconomic factor likely plays a significant role in the school's academic challenges, which have remained consistently low over the years, with little to no progress in closing the achievement gap with the state averages. While the nearby Dumas High School and Dermott High School also face challenges, they appear to be performing slightly better than McGehee High School, suggesting that there may be opportunities for McGehee High School to learn from the strategies and practices of its neighboring schools.