Six public school districts in Benton County received overall grades ranging from C to B in Niche’s latest county evaluations—the lowest overall marks among its eight listed districts.
Four districts share a B at the cutoff, expanding this comparison beyond three.
The 2027 evaluations cover markedly different educational settings, from an arts-focused charter district in Rogers to smaller community school systems.
Their academic results identify concerns, but the reporting also reveals practical opportunities: technical training, advanced coursework, school-based health care and a new districtwide school-supply program.
Arkansas Arts Academy — Overall Niche Grade: B
Arkansas Arts Academy operates in Rogers and serves kindergarten through twelfth grade, alongside a separately advertised preschool offering. Arkansas identifies it as an open-enrollment charter district, making it eligible for this district comparison.
Academics Earn a Higher Grade Than the Overall Evaluation
The academy’s 2027 Niche profile gives it an A− for academics and B grades for teachers and college preparation. Its enrollment snapshot lists 945 students and a 10:1 student-teacher ratio.
Niche reports 53% reading proficiency and 36% math proficiency, using Arkansas’ 2024–25 assessment program. Mathematics is a clear area for attention even alongside the favorable academic category grade.
Those percentages describe tested students’ achievement against assessment standards. They do not measure every student’s progress or establish how individual arts programs affect academic performance.
The difference between the A− academic category and B overall is also a useful reminder that Niche evaluates more than test results.
Arts Are Part of Classroom Instruction
The academy’s arts-integration program describes an approach that connects academic and artistic standards within lessons. Students’ work is intended to demonstrate learning in both disciplines.
That makes the arts more than an after-school option. The program also incorporates museum partnerships and collaboration between classroom teachers and arts educators.
For a child who responds to making, performing or interpreting creative work, that instructional approach is worth examining closely. Families can review examples of projects and discuss how teachers assess the academic content within them.
The academy describes itself as a tuition-free public charter school. Families considering enrollment should use its current application information rather than assuming that living near a Rogers campus automatically establishes placement.
Gentry Public Schools — Overall Niche Grade: B
Gentry Public Schools serves kindergarten through twelfth grade across four schools. Its current Niche profile lists 1,753 students and assigns a B for academics, a B− for teachers and an A for clubs and activities.
Proficiency Results Leave Substantial Room to Improve
Niche reports that 36% of tested students reached proficiency in reading and 35% in math, drawing on the 2024–25 Arkansas assessment program.
Both figures place the reported proficiency rate at roughly one in three tested students. That gives families a reason to examine the reading and mathematics support available at their child’s particular school.
The A for clubs and activities adds a different dimension to the evaluation. Opportunities to participate and develop interests are part of the district experience, while academic proficiency remains a separate concern requiring its own evidence.
Neither category should be used to explain away the other.
School Supplies and Lunch Come at No Cost
A concrete change for families arrived with the 2026–27 school year. Gentry expanded its “Ready Day One” school-supply program districtwide after piloting it at the primary school during 2025–26.
The district says students receive the required classroom supplies at no cost, removing the need for families to purchase materials from a traditional supply list.
Gentry also announced lunch at no cost to all students beginning in 2026–27. These measures directly affect the cost of sending a child to school.
Their availability does not establish that test scores have improved.
They do, however, describe support families encounter immediately: classroom materials and meals supplied through the school day, alongside the instruction and extracurricular activities reflected elsewhere in the evaluation.
Gravette School District — Overall Niche Grade: B
Gravette School District serves prekindergarten through twelfth grade. Its official district overview identifies a service area that includes Gravette and surrounding communities such as Sulphur Springs, Hiwasse, Maysville and western Bella Vista.
Academic and College-Preparation Grades Differ
Gravette’s 2027 Niche evaluation gives it a B+ for academics, a B for teachers and a C+ for college preparation. Niche lists 2,132 students and a 14:1 student-teacher ratio.
Its reported 2024–25 proficiency figures are 43% in reading and 47% in math. Fewer than half of tested students reached the reported proficiency threshold in either subject.
The B+ academic category and lower college-preparation category describe different parts of the educational experience.
Families planning high school coursework should therefore examine the actual courses and pathways available, rather than treating the overall B as a complete description of preparation after graduation.
That includes looking at technical education as well as traditional college-oriented study.
Technical Training Has a Local Home
The district hosts the Western Benton County Career Center, whose listed partners include Northwest Technical Institute and several surrounding school districts.
Its current staff directory identifies instructors in automotive technology, welding and construction. These are specific opportunities for students interested in learning through practical work.
The regional arrangement matters: the center connects local high school education with technical training rather than requiring every participating district to duplicate the same facilities.
Families should confirm the current course schedule, prerequisites and any credential opportunities associated with a particular program.
The presence of instructors and equipment establishes access to training; it does not establish a certification or employment outcome for every participant.
For students whose interests lead toward skilled trades, the center is a consequential part of the district’s educational offerings.
Siloam Springs School District — Overall Niche Grade: B
Siloam Springs School District serves prekindergarten through twelfth grade. Its attendance area reaches beyond Benton County into Washington County, a connection documented in Arkansas’ school-district tax records.
A Broad District With Academic Challenges
The district’s 2027 Niche profile gives it B grades for academics and teachers and a B+ for college preparation. Its snapshot lists 4,472 students and a 16:1 student-teacher ratio.
Niche reports reading proficiency of 35% and math proficiency of 37% from Arkansas’ 2024–25 assessment program. Those results leave a substantial share of tested students below the reported proficiency threshold.
Because the figures cover the district, they should not be interpreted as the performance of every school or course. They also include students served outside Benton County.
For families, school-level results and a child’s recent work are necessary to understand where additional help—or more challenging instruction—would be appropriate.
Career Pathways Extend Beyond a Single Occupation
The Arkansas Department of Education’s district profile identifies Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment or concurrent-credit opportunities.
It also lists career pathways in fields including advanced manufacturing, construction technology, culinary arts, medical skills, nursing services and software development. That breadth gives students several ways to connect coursework with a possible next step.
A student interested in health care may need a different high school sequence from one considering construction or computer-related work.
Early course planning can help families understand which classes are available and how they fit graduation requirements.
The state’s pathway listing establishes the opportunities associated with the district, rather than guaranteeing that every course runs every semester or that every participant earns a credential.
Siloam Springs’ B+ college-preparation category sits alongside those offerings. The practical question for a family is which pathway fits the student and what successful participation requires.
Pea Ridge School District — Overall Niche Grade: B−
Pea Ridge School District serves students from preschool through high school. Its current Niche evaluation gives it B grades for academics, teachers and college preparation, despite the lower B− overall grade.
Reading Proficiency Trails Math Proficiency
Niche lists 2,670 students and a 17:1 student-teacher ratio. It reports 38% reading proficiency and 48% math proficiency, using Arkansas’ 2024–25 assessment program.
The reading figure identifies a substantial area for attention. A district’s overall evaluation cannot tell a family whether a child needs help with decoding, comprehension, vocabulary or another specific skill.
That distinction becomes especially important as students move into courses requiring more independent reading.
Recent classroom assessments and a clear explanation of available intervention can provide more useful guidance than a districtwide percentage alone.
Pea Ridge’s academic and college-preparation categories also make its advanced-learning opportunities worth examining separately.
Health Care Is Available on a School Campus
The district’s partnership with Community Clinic Pea Ridge provides a school-based health center at Pea Ridge High School.
The district says it serves students, families, staff and the surrounding community, with transportation options for students arranged through the clinic.
That is a practical service for families navigating appointments during the school day. Availability should be distinguished from any claim that the clinic has improved attendance or achievement.
Pea Ridge also operates a Scholars Academy with advising, advanced coursework and college-planning support. Published requirements for its upper-grade tracks include a 3.7 GPA and specified advanced, AP or concurrent courses.
Those requirements matter. The academy is a defined pathway with participation expectations, rather than an automatic service for every high school student.
Decatur School District — Overall Niche Grade: C
Decatur School District serves prekindergarten through twelfth grade. Its C is the lowest overall letter in Niche’s Benton County listing.
A Newer Improvement Plan Identifies Specific Targets
Decatur’s 2027 Niche profile assigns C grades for academics and teachers and a C− for college preparation. Its enrollment snapshot lists 613 students and a 10:1 student-teacher ratio.
A more recent district document provides additional academic context.
The districtwide needs assessment within its 2026–27 Northside Elementary improvement plan reports that 31% of students in grades three through ten scored “Ready” or “Exceeding” in English language arts during 2025–26; the corresponding math figure was 30%.
The plan sets June 2027 district goals of 41% in English language arts and 40% in math. Those are targets, not achieved results.
Although the document is an elementary-school plan, it explicitly separates these districtwide figures from Northside’s own results.
Reading Groups, Individual Plans and Regular Reviews
For Northside Elementary, the plan identifies small-group reading instruction based on diagnostic information, individual reading plans and resources including UFLI and Benchmark Workshop.
Its mathematics actions include small groups, intervention plans and Waterford math support. Staff are directed to review assessment information at least three times during the year and adjust instruction as needed.
These are school-specific actions, so they should not be presented as an identical program operating in every Decatur classroom. They nevertheless provide a concrete example of how the district intends to respond to academic needs.
The useful measure of the plan will be whether students acquire the identified skills and whether staff change support when progress is insufficient.
Publishing a target establishes direction; monitoring students’ results determines whether that direction is producing the intended gains.
Shared Grades, Different Choices Across Benton County
The county’s Niche-listed grades span A+ to C. Bentonville received A+ and Rogers received A, while the six featured districts occupy the remaining grade levels.
The four-way B tie is why this article includes six districts. Reading scores, enrollment, review stars or numerical ranking positions cannot fairly be used to select one B district and exclude the other three.
Several of these systems also share educational resources.
The Western Benton County Career Center lists Bentonville, Decatur, Gentry, Gravette and Siloam Springs among its district partners, illustrating how a student’s opportunities can extend beyond facilities operated by a single home district.
Under Niche’s 2027 district methodology, overall grades combine academic and teacher measures with factors including family feedback, culture and diversity, resources, extracurricular activities and sports.
They reflect more than standardized-test proficiency alone.
The student-teacher ratios reported here compare enrollment with full-time-equivalent teachers; they are not average classroom sizes. Niche’s evaluation year is also separate from the assessment years identified in each profile.
