Summary:
Zip code 72853, serving the Ola, Arkansas area, is home to a single high school, Two Rivers High School, which serves grades 5 through 12 with an enrollment of 413 students.
Two Rivers High School is a standout for its remarkable improvement and unique challenges. The school has shown a clear upward trend, climbing from a 1-star rating (ranked 239th) in the 2023-2024 school year to a 2-star rating (ranked 191st) in the 2025-2026 school year, moving from the 22nd to the 35th percentile statewide. This progress is particularly notable given that 100% of its students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, indicating a high level of economic disadvantage. The school also boasts a very low student-teacher ratio of 7.9:1, suggesting a high potential for individualized attention, and spends $13,547 per student. While the overall proficiency rates for the 2025-2026 school year are below state averages (31.6% in English Language Arts vs. 39.4% statewide, and 31.6% in Math vs. 44.1% statewide), a grade-by-grade analysis reveals a more nuanced picture. For example, 5th Grade Math proficiency (46.7%) actually exceeds the state average (45.0%), and Geometry proficiency (28.2%) also surpasses the state average (26.4%). However, significant struggles appear in the 7th and 8th grades, where proficiency drops dramatically, such as 8th Grade Math at only 11.1% compared to the state's 36.2%.
Despite academic challenges, the school maintains a strong graduation rate of 88.5%, just 1.6 percentage points below the state average, and a low dropout rate of 0.9%. Year-over-year test score data from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026 shows consistent improvement across all subjects, with gains of +10.2 percentage points in ELA, +8.7 in Reading, +6.6 in Math, and +8.1 in Science. This consistent growth supports the positive ranking trend and suggests the school's improvement is not a fluke. The school is part of the Two Rivers School District, which is ranked 204th out of 251 districts in Arkansas.
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