Original Research by School Decision on Premier High Schools of Arkansas
Premier High Schools of Arkansas is a public charter school district serving high school students across multiple Arkansas communities. It operates as a network of tuition-free campuses, with its administrative home in Pulaski County. The district includes in-person schools in Little Rock, Fort Smith, and Texarkana, plus a virtual school serving students across the state. State records show that the district expanded significantly in the 2024-25 school year, adding new campuses in Fayetteville, North Little Rock, and Russellville, bringing its total to seven locations. This growth gives families in more Arkansas communities a public charter high school option outside their traditional zoned district.
The district’s state assessment results are essentially a blank page. Data for math, English language arts, and science across grades three through eight are all marked as missing. That absence makes sense given the grade band: Premier High Schools serves only grades nine through twelve, and Arkansas does not administer its statewide ATLAS assessments at those high school grade levels in the same way it does for elementary and middle school. For the same reason, the district has no reported graduation rate in this data set. A parent looking for test-based academic benchmarks at this district will not find them here, and should ask the school directly for whatever internal measures or high school end-of-course exam results it uses.
The student body is predominantly Black, with White students as the second largest group, and smaller shares of students who are Hispanic, of two or more races, American Indian, or Asian. Information on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals was not available, nor were counts of students with disabilities or English learners. A parent may want to ask the district for those numbers if they are relevant to their child’s needs.
The district’s recent history includes a charter renewal process that drew public attention. Its charter was set to expire in mid-2023, and the Arkansas State Board of Education reviewed the renewal application with hearings in late 2022 and early 2023. The district’s continued operation through the 2024-25 school year, with all campuses listed as accredited by the state, indicates the renewal was granted. That renewal was the mechanism that allowed the subsequent expansion to new campuses.
Among Pulaski County’s districts, two comparative data points are available. The district’s chronic absenteeism rate places it in the bottom quarter of the county’s districts, which is a concern worth exploring with the school. A very high share of students missing significant amounts of school can affect academic momentum and graduation progress even when test data is not available. On the spending side, the district’s per-pupil current expenditure sits in the upper half of the middle range among its county peers, suggesting it is not underfunded relative to other districts in the area.
For a family considering this district, the picture is defined more by what is not in the data than by what is. Premier High Schools of Arkansas is a growing network of charter high schools with a recent renewal of its charter and a substantial expansion underway. It serves a diverse student population across multiple cities and offers a virtual option. The absence of state test scores and graduation rates in this record means a parent should seek those figures directly from the school, along with information on student supports, course offerings, and college and career readiness programs. The high chronic absenteeism rate relative to other Pulaski County districts is the one clear flag in the available data and merits a direct conversation with the school about how it monitors attendance and supports students who are at risk of falling off track.
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