Summary:
The Marion-area school list includes three schools serving prekindergarten through grade 12: Crittenden County Elementary School (614 students), Crittenden County Middle School (277), and Crittenden County High School (381). Their most important difference is the middle school’s recent test-score slide: across 10 results, it fell an average of 8 points from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, while corresponding state results fell by about 1 point.
Crittenden County High School had the strongest latest-year average relative to state results, at about 3 points above across six results. Its clearest strengths were grade 10 math, 48% versus 40% statewide, and grade 11 writing, 54% versus 47%. The middle school averaged about 1 point below the state and had the lowest average; its grade 8 writing result was 31%, 17 points below the state, though grade 7 science was a standout at 40%, 12 points above. Crittenden County Elementary School also averaged about 1 point below the state, with grade 4 reading and science 8 and 11 points above state results, respectively, but grade 5 editing and mechanics was 13 points below. These are comparisons with state results for the same grades, not direct rankings of schools serving different grades.
Elementary results improved by an average of about 5 points across its 10 tests, while High’s six results were nearly stable, declining by less than 1 point on average. Middle’s biggest drops were grade 8 math, down 20 points, writing, down 18, and reading, down 16. SchoolDigger’s middle-school percentile ranking also fell, from the 76th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 48th in 2025–2026; it lists the Crittenden County district at 3 stars and rank 73 of 158 districts. In 2024–2025, free/reduced lunch eligible shares were 63% at Elementary, 60% at Middle, and 54% at High. High also had the highest student-teacher ratio, 16.5, and chronic absenteeism of 25% in 2025–2026, compared with 15% at Middle and 11% at Elementary.
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