Best Public Schools in Zip Code 72201

Zip code 72201 in Little Rock, AR, is home to seven schools serving Kindergarten through 12th grade, split between the Arkansas Virtual Academy and the Estem Public Charter School districts, with a total enrollment of over 7,600 students.

The standout school in the area is Estem High School, which ranks in the 73rd percentile statewide and boasts a remarkably low dropout rate of just 0.4%, compared to a 13.7% dropout rate at Arkansas Virtual Academy High School. Estem schools consistently outperform the Arkansas Virtual Academy schools across nearly every academic metric, despite serving a student population with a higher rate of economic disadvantage. For example, Estem Junior High Public Charter School achieves an impressive 88.5% proficiency in Algebra, more than double the state average, while Arkansas Virtual Academy Middle School posts the lowest English Language Arts proficiency at 24.0%. The Estem district also invests significantly more per student, spending between $11,417 and $12,912 compared to $8,310 to $9,069 for the virtual schools, and maintains far lower student-teacher ratios, such as 9.8:1 at Estem High School versus 43.5:1 at Arkansas Virtual Academy Elementary.

While the Estem district excels at the secondary level, its elementary schools—Estem Elementary School and Estem East Village Elementary Public Charter School—rank lower in the 28th and 38th percentiles, suggesting room for improvement. The Arkansas Virtual Academy High School faces significant challenges with a low graduation rate of 78.5% and declining rankings, falling from the 47th to the 36th percentile. Overall, the data reveals a clear performance gap between the in-person Estem schools and the virtual Arkansas Virtual Academy schools, highlighting the impact of resource allocation and instructional models on student outcomes in this zip code.