Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 72370

In zip code 72370, there is one middle school, Osceola Middle School, serving grades 5 through 8 with 221 students in the Osceola, Arkansas area.

Osceola Middle School is the only middle school in this zip code and is part of the Osceola School District, which ranks in the bottom 4% of districts in Arkansas. The school faces significant challenges, with nearly all students (98.64%) eligible for free or reduced lunch, indicating a high level of economic disadvantage. Despite spending a very high amount per student ($20,178) and maintaining a low student-teacher ratio of 12.1 to 1, academic performance is well below state averages. For example, in the 2025-2026 school year, only 16.9% of students were proficient in Mathematics compared to the state average of 44.1%, and proficiency in English Language Arts was 19.7% versus the state's 39.4%. The school has consistently ranked in the bottom 7% of Arkansas middle schools over the last three years.

There are some notable trends within the school. There is a slight year-over-year improvement in test scores from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, suggesting recent interventions may be having a modest positive effect. Performance varies by grade level, with 6th graders consistently outperforming other grades, while 7th graders show the lowest scores across all subjects. Interestingly, 8th-grade Science had the highest single proficiency rate at 26.1%, which could indicate a particularly effective program at that grade level. The high per-student spending likely goes toward addressing the non-academic needs of students from a high-poverty background, which helps explain the disconnect between resource allocation and academic outcomes.