Rison High School, Rison AR - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Rison High School

Rison High School serves grades seven through twelve as the sole secondary campus in the Cleveland County School District, located in the small rural county-seat town of Rison, Arkansas. The school enrolls a modest number of students given its wide grade band, and it draws from a district that was formed through the consolidation of the former Rison and Kingsland school districts, a common pattern in rural Arkansas. The building sits on Main Street, integrated into the town’s compact center rather than on a remote campus.

Academically, the picture is mixed and somewhat partial. State assessment data from the ATLAS tests, which are relatively new in Arkansas, is available for seventh and eighth graders only. In seventh grade, roughly half of students met proficiency standards in English language arts and science, while math proficiency was a bit lower. Eighth grade results were weaker across the board, with English language arts showing the lowest proficiency rate among the tested subjects. Overall, when combining all tested grades and subjects, the school's proficiency index places it above the midpoint when compared to the two districts in Cleveland County. However, because the data covers only middle school grades, it offers no direct window into the academic performance of high school students. A parent may want to ask the school for upper-grade assessment results and for the four-year graduation rate, which was not reported in the available data and could be a meaningful piece of the picture.

The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Black enrollment and very small shares of Asian, Hispanic, and multiracial students. About half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a common indicator of economic need. The school does not operate as a charter or magnet, and its Title I status was not reported. No information was available on special education identification rates, English learner populations, chronic absenteeism, or discipline outcomes, so families interested in those areas would need to follow up directly with the district.

Rison itself is a town experiencing population decline, functioning largely as a bedroom community for workers commuting to Pine Bluff, Fordyce, and other nearby towns. The local economy has narrowed over the decades, with large-scale farming largely gone and only one lumber operation remaining. The largest employers are the city and county governments, the school district, a nursing home, and that lumber company. Housing values in the area are below state and national benchmarks, reflecting the area’s modest economic base and slow growth. The town’s civic anchors include the county courthouse and a small historic village, but no public transit or extensive park system was documented. The district’s public records showed no recent major changes such as boundary shifts, curriculum overhauls, or tax referenda.

For a family considering Rison High School, the key takeaway is that this is a small, rural secondary school serving a community with a contracting population and a straightforward set of academic offerings that appear to perform in the middle of a very small county comparison group. The lack of high-school-level test data and graduation rate means the most important metrics for evaluating college and career readiness are not visible in this profile. A household that values a tight-knit school in a quiet, low-cost town with easy highway access to several small cities may find it a reasonable fit, but parents would be wise to investigate academic outcomes beyond middle school and to ask about course pathways, dual credit, and post-graduation plans directly.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=90%Cohort of 56 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

292 schools plotted. 5 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 742%

School 42% · District 42%

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 827%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 1 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 823%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Science

Grade 746%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 3 pts above state median

This schoolCLEVELAND COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 7Lower-income5%Higher-income53%49 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income56%29 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income26%Higher-income60%34 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income39%Higher-income44%4 pp gap