South Barber

South Barber has two schools serving prekindergarten through grade 12: South Barber Pre-K-6 has 111 students, and South Barber 7-12 has 87. Because they serve different grades, their all-grades results reflect different grade mixes. In 2025-26, both schools were above state proficiency rates in ELA, math and science. The most important takeaway is that strengths differ by subject: 7-12 leads in ELA, while Pre-K-6 leads in math and especially science.

South Barber 7-12 had the strongest all-grades ELA result at 57%, 9 points above Pre-K-6 and 11 above the state. South Barber Pre-K-6 led in math, at 55% versus 52% at 7-12, and in science, at 65% versus 40%—a 25-point difference. Grade-level results add important detail: Pre-K-6 grade 6 ELA was 23%, 19 points below the state, even as its grade 6 math result was 54%, 13 points above. At 7-12, grade 8 ELA was 62%, 19 points above the state, and grade 10 math was 58%, 21 points above.

Across the two schools, average math proficiency rose 8 points and science rose 11 points from 2024-25 to 2025-26, while ELA fell 6 points. The gains were not shared evenly: 7-12 rose 19 points in math and 19 in science, while Pre-K-6 ELA fell 13 points. SchoolDigger’s rankings also shifted in opposite directions: 7-12 moved from the 42nd to the 86th percentile and earned four stars, while Pre-K-6 moved from the 81st to the 64th percentile and earned three stars. Attendance is a concern to weigh at 7-12: chronic absenteeism was 28%, compared with 4% at Pre-K-6 and 18% statewide. Student-teacher ratios were 6.9 at 7-12 and 13.8 at Pre-K-6; these figures describe different school contexts but do not, by themselves, explain the score patterns.