Summary:
Zip code 71851 in Mineral Springs, Arkansas, is served by two public schools—Mineral Springs Elementary School (grades K-6) and Mineral Springs High School (grades 7-12)—both part of the Mineral Springs School District, which ranks in the bottom 7% of Arkansas districts. The combined enrollment is 401 students, and a very high percentage of students (over 82%) qualify for free or reduced lunch, indicating significant economic challenges in the community.
Comparing the two schools, Mineral Springs Elementary School is the stronger performer, especially in mathematics. Its state ranking percentile has improved over the last three years, and 6th-grade math proficiency (64%) actually exceeds the state average. The elementary school has a student-teacher ratio of 10:1 and spends $18,953 per student. In contrast, Mineral Springs High School faces severe academic challenges, ranking in the bottom 9% of Arkansas high schools with a declining percentile. Despite an exceptionally low student-teacher ratio of 5.3:1 and high per-student spending of $22,293, proficiency rates are critically low—Algebra proficiency is just 2.8% and Science is 5.9%, far below state averages. The high school’s graduation rate is 85.2%, below the state average, though its dropout rate is very low at 0.5%.
A key takeaway is the "spending vs. results" paradox: the district spends well above the national average per student, yet academic outcomes are among the lowest in the state, suggesting that poverty and systemic challenges, not lack of funding, are the primary obstacles. Another notable finding is the sharp academic decline between elementary and high school. While the elementary school shows progress in math, the high school’s performance is alarmingly low, indicating a potential breakdown in student engagement or instructional effectiveness during the transition to upper grades. This data points to a need for targeted intervention at the high school level, while the elementary school’s math success offers a model to build upon.
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