Summary:
In zip code 72103, there is one high school, Little Rock Southwest High School, serving grades 9 through 12 in Mabelvale, Arkansas, as part of the Little Rock School District.
Little Rock Southwest High School is a large school with 2,045 students and a favorable student-teacher ratio of 12:1. The school spends $15,936 per student, which is well above the state average. However, academic performance is a significant concern, with proficiency rates in core subjects like Algebra (5.1%) and Geometry (2.4%) critically low. The school has consistently ranked in the bottom 5% of Arkansas high schools. A notable exception is 9th-grade Biology, where 35.7% of students scored proficient, a bright spot worth investigating. There has been a slight year-over-year improvement in all subjects, but the school remains far behind district and state averages.
The most pressing issue is the dropout crisis, with a rate of 11.9% and a graduation rate of only 72.1%, meaning nearly 3 in 10 students do not graduate on time. The school serves an exceptionally high-need population, with 99.85% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. This context is crucial for understanding the school's challenges, as the high spending and low performance paradox suggests that deep-rooted socioeconomic factors, rather than a lack of resources, are the primary barriers to student success.
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