Carlisle High School, Carlisle AR

Original Research by School Decision on Carlisle High School

Carlisle High School serves grades seven through twelve in a single combined secondary school, the only high school in the Carlisle School District. The town of Carlisle is a small bedroom community in eastern Lonoke County, part of the Little Rock metropolitan area, with a mix of residential areas and agricultural industry centered on rice farming. The town has seen long-term population decline, and its built environment is spread out, with the high school located on the east side of town rather than in a downtown core. Housing values in the zip code are well below national benchmarks, and the estimated monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home is relatively modest, consistent with the area’s rural character.

The student body is predominantly white, with a noticeable share of Black and Hispanic students, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Enrollment at the school is small for a secondary school spanning six grades, which means each grade level is composed of relatively few students. Classmates are likely to know one another well across grade levels, and the school community is tight-knit by necessity.

On the most recent state assessments, which measure math, English language arts, and science, the school’s proficiency rates fall in a range that places the school above the midpoint among districts in Lonoke County when considering overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. Still, the rates themselves are modest across the board. In seventh grade, the share of students reaching proficient or above was a portion of the tested group in math and a similar portion in English language arts, with a somewhat higher portion in science. In eighth grade, the figures were lower in math, and also lower in English language arts and science compared to the seventh-grade results. A family moving to Carlisle should expect that while the school’s performance is competitive within its rural county, the raw proficiency levels may be lower than what is seen in many suburban or higher-wealth districts nationally. Parents who place a high priority on strong state test scores may want to ask the school directly about its instructional approach and any supports for students who are not yet meeting the proficiency bar.

The school does not appear to have a reported four-year graduation rate in the available data. A parent looking into the high school experience should ask the school for its most recent graduation rate and the percentage of students who go on to college, trade school, or the military, as those figures are often tracked locally.

The district brief turned up no recent major changes, facility projects, or leadership transitions of lasting impact that were publicly reported. The school itself operates as a traditional public school that is not a charter or magnet. The available data did not include details about course offerings, such as Advanced Placement, dual enrollment, or career and technical education pathways. Given that this is a single combined secondary school in a small district, a family may want to contact the school directly to learn what coursework is available, especially for students in the upper grades who are planning for postsecondary options. Carlisle High School presents itself as a small, rural secondary school where the community is closely tied to the area’s agricultural economy and where the student body is modest in size, and where state test performance, while roughly in the middle of the county comparison set, shows room for a family to investigate further whether the academic offerings match their student’s needs.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=90%Cohort of 57 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 739%

School 39% · District 39%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 11 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 32%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 822%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Science

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 35%

even with state median

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 5 pts below state median

This schoolCARLISLE 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-income13%Higher-income13%0 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income7%Higher-income62%55 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income10%Higher-income27%17 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income0%Higher-income31%31 pp gap