By: Tammy Curtis, Managing Editor

Two area schools have ranked very well according to recent rankings on SchoolDigger. The database driven website ranks schools across the nation based on test scores supplied by each state’s Department of Education. An Average Standard Score is calculated by normalizing and averaging each school’s test scores across all tests and grades.


On top in regard to changes over the 2020-21 school year was Highland School District. The District was 30th over all 249 districts. Highland rose 36 places over the previous year.
Also rated on School Digger were the individual campuses against other Arkansas high schools, middle schools and elementary schools.


Highland’s rankings include:
• Cherokee Elementary School- 141st out of 496 Elementary Schools
• Highland Middle School- 150th out of 330 Middle Schools
• Highland High School- 69th out of 290 High Schools
While not the highest ranked of the area schools, Cave City School District has moved up the most of all districts in the Spring River Chronicle coverage area. The district is ranked 39th, but has risen 54 points over the last school year.


Cave City’s
rankings include:
Cave City Elementary -204th out of 496 elementary schools
Cave City Middle School- 134th out of 330 Middle Schools
Cave City High School-111th out of 290 High Schools.
Salem School District ranked the highest of all the area district’s at 18th.


Salem’s rankings include:
Salem Elementary School-61st out of 496 Elementary Schools
Salem High School -19 out of 290 High Schools.
Mammoth Spring School District was 136th in the state.


Mammoth Spring rankings include:
Mammoth Spring Elementary School- 186th out of 496 Elementary Schools.
Mammoth Spring High School- 128th out of 290 High Schools.
For over 16 years, SchoolDigger.com has helped millions of parents evaluate school performance and quality. We have test scores, rankings, school and district boundaries, student/teacher ratios, ethnic makeup, and scores of other useful metrics and information for over 120,000 elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States.
The performance of the area schools is a good indicator for realtors to utilize when selling real estate where a determining factor in moving to the area is the ranking of the schools for their children’s education.