Pine Bluff
Arkansas's White-Black Graduation Gap Narrowed to 5.5 Points. Black Students Drove Most of the Closing.
In 2016, white students in Arkansas graduated at 89.2 percent. Black students graduated at 81.5 percent. The gap was 7.7 percentage points.
Arkansas Is Graduating 89 Percent of Its Students. That Puts It Above the National Average.
Arkansas graduated 89 percent of its high school students in 2024, two percentage points above the national average of roughly 87 percent. For a state whose other education metrics tend to sit near th...
Pine Bluff's Second Act: Under State Control, the District Cut Chronic Absence in Half
When a state takes over a school district, the assumption is that things have gotten as bad as they can get. For Pine Bluff School District, that moment came amid declining enrollment, academic failur...
95 Districts at Record Lows, 22 at Highs: Arkansas Splits in Two
Bentonville added 370 students this year. It is one of 22 Arkansas districts at all-time enrollment highs. Ninety-five districts, meanwhile, just recorded their lowest headcounts in at least two decad...
NWA Now Educates 1 in 7 Arkansas Students
In 2005, the four anchor districts of Northwest Arkansas enrolled 44,667 students, about one in every 10 in the state. By 2025-26, Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and Fayetteville together enrolled 6...
Three Out of Four Arkansas Districts Still Below Pre-COVID Enrollment
Arkansas public schools enrolled 479,432 students in 2019-20, the most in the state's modern history. Six years later, 14,011 of those students are gone, and the recovery that briefly appeared possibl...
One in 17 Arkansas Students Now Attends a Charter-Like School
Arkansas does not track charter schools with a formal flag in its enrollment data. Identify them by name, though, and the pattern is unmistakable: 17 entities matching charter, academy, and virtual ke...
Nine Delta Districts Lost 55% of Their Students
In 2005, nine school districts in the Arkansas Delta collectively enrolled 24,887 students. By 2025-26, that number had fallen to 11,118. The loss of 13,769 students, 55.3% of the total, spans two dec...