Best Public Schools in Zip Code 72687

The three public schools in zip code 72687 (Yellville, Arkansas) serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and are all part of the Yellville Summit School District, a top-20% performer in the state that has achieved a 4-star rating despite serving a population where over 98% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

The standout school in the area is Yellville-Summit High School, which has surged from a 3-star to a 4-star rating and now ranks 45th in Arkansas—a jump of 75 places. It is the only school in the district to outperform the state average in every subject test, with particularly strong Reading (52.1% proficient) and Biology (54% proficient) scores. A key factor in this success is its exceptionally low student-teacher ratio of 3.9:1, which allows for highly personalized instruction. However, the high school has a notable weakness in Algebra, where only 21% of students are proficient compared to the state average of 36.9%. In contrast, Yellville-Summit Elementary School is a math powerhouse, with 60.6% of students proficient in Mathematics—16.5 percentage points above the state—despite having a much higher student-teacher ratio of 19.3:1. The Yellville-Summit Middle School is the relative weak link, with a declining ranking and scores below state averages in early middle school grades, though it shows strength in Science and 8th-grade Math.

The most impressive takeaway is that the entire district is achieving above-average academic results despite near-universal economic disadvantage, a strong indicator of effective teaching and leadership. The high school's rapid improvement and the elementary school's consistent math excellence show that these schools are defying the odds. The district's per-student spending is relatively consistent across schools, ranging from $13,283 at the elementary level to $13,803 at the high school. While the high school's graduation rate of 88.7% is slightly below the state average, its low dropout rate of 2.0% suggests students are staying engaged. For parents, this district offers a compelling mix of high-performing elementary math instruction and a rapidly improving high school with an incredibly supportive learning environment.