Lakeside Junior High School

Lakeside Junior High School in the Springdale School District serves 654 students in grades 8 and 9, with 87% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, indicating a community with significant economic challenges.

Lakeside presents a fascinating "two-track" academic profile. On one hand, the school struggles in standard grade-level subjects like English Language Arts and Reading, where proficiency rates often fall 10-15 points below the state average. On the other hand, Lakeside achieves exceptional results in advanced courses. In the 2025-2026 school year, 93.6% of students were proficient in Biology—more than double the state average of 42.7%—and 75% were proficient in Geometry, compared to just 26.4% statewide. This suggests a highly effective advanced science and math program that can compete with schools in more affluent areas, such as Central Junior High School, which has a much lower poverty rate (46.24%) but similar advanced course performance. However, the school's dropout rate has risen from 0.7% in 2018-2019 to 2.3% in 2022-2023, the highest among comparable Springdale junior highs except for George Junior High School (3.8%).

Interestingly, Lakeside is located just 0.29 miles from the Don Tyson School of Innovation, a K-12 alternative school that consistently outperforms the district and state in nearly every subject. Don Tyson has a lower free/reduced lunch rate (58.2%) and a lower student-teacher ratio (10.7), raising questions about how students are assigned between these two schools. Despite spending more per student ($13,953) than higher-performing peers like Central Junior High ($13,292) and Don Tyson ($10,747), Lakeside's challenges in standard subjects persist. There are signs of improvement, with English Language Arts proficiency rising from 19.6% (2023-2024) to 28.2% (2025-2026), but the school still has a long road ahead to replicate its advanced course success across the broader curriculum.