Summary:
The city of Palestine, Arkansas is home to two schools: Palestine-Wheatley Elementary School and Palestine-Wheatley Senior High. These schools serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and are part of the Palestine-Wheatley School District.
The high school has seen steady improvement in its statewide ranking, moving from 173rd out of 282 Arkansas high schools in 2021-2022 to 98th out of 305 in 2023-2024, earning a 3-star rating from SchoolDigger. Its performance on English Language Arts assessments is notably strong, with 10th-grade students scoring 40.4% proficient or better, significantly higher than the state average of 31.7%. However, the school struggles with mathematics, with only 15.1% of students proficient or better in Algebra and 7.7% in Geometry, well below the state averages.
In contrast, the elementary school has maintained a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger over the past three years, ranking in the bottom half of Arkansas elementary schools. The school's performance on standardized tests is mixed, with some grade levels performing above the state average (e.g., 4th-grade English Language Arts) and others significantly below (e.g., 5th-grade Mathematics). Both schools have an extremely high percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high-need student population, which likely impacts their academic performance.
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