Eureka Springs High School has once again been named one of the state’s best of the best by a national publication.
In the most recent rankings of “Best High Schools” by U.S. News and World Report, ESHS ranked No. 10 overall in the state. The school has a “scorecard” ranking of 93.12 and ranks 1,214th nationally, including high marks for graduation rate, reading proficiency and ACT scores.
“We are very humbled, very pleased,” superintendent Bryan Pruitt said. “It just shows the hard work and dedication that our students and teachers have done here. It’s a job well done, and as I’ve said many times before, it’s a combination of having great parents and outstanding kids. And then, we have the best teachers with resources to teach high quality as far as instructional materials.
“We have kids that are receptive that come here wanting to learn with the right attitude and our teachers reinforce that.” According to the U.S. News and World Report statistics, ESHS, with an enrollment of 222, was one of 17,655 schools across the country assessed. It tied for first place in the state in graduation rate and ranked No. 5 in Arkansas in state assessment proficiency rankings and state assessment performance rankings.
The school’s ACT Aspire scores relative to “U.S. News Expectations” was “Well Above Expectations” at 98.6 percent, the report read.
“They use graduation rates, percentage of AP courses, a combination of several factors,” Pruitt said. “We’ve been in these rankings before and we’re proud we’re there again. There’s tough competition and I’m so proud of our high school.
“Hopefully it will be a good tool for recruiting a new high school principal.”
ESHS is in the market for a new principal after David Gilmore, who has led the school the past seven years, accepted the superintendent position at Green Forest last week.
Finishing his last year as a top 10 school is bittersweet, Gilmore said.
“I’ve seen how excellent this school is, the teachers, students and the support from the community,” Gilmore said about the U.S. News and World Report honor. “They’re all doing a lot of things right to make [the ranking] happen so I wasn’t surprised at this at all.”
Graduation rates and test scores made him extremely proud, Gilmore said.
“We were tied with another school for first place in the state in graduation rates and our test scores were far above average,” he said. “ACT scores and the amount of students taking AP classes, and then going on to the next level — college readiness — it’s teachers doing all the right things in those areas.
“The support we’ve had from the community and offering programs that we’ve added over the years like Connect 4 trade school, the nursing program we send students to, and the AP classes. It gives us a good balance for our school to allow a lot of students to find their niche and what they want to do. It increases your graduation rate when you do things like that.”
