You may have seen the reports on school rankings, which chose Valley View as the number one district in the state of Arkansas. Well, did you wonder how the Piggott schools faired?

Of the 249 districts ranked Piggott was 65 overall, between Gravette and Bauxite. PES ranked number 56 out of 477 campuses, while the high school ranked 128 out of 260 campuses.

The rankings were based on number of students, student-to-teacher ratio and test scores. The website also ranks real estate values and other variables.

The lowest ranked campuses in the state were also in some of the poorest areas, with Hughes, Turrell and Earle as the bottom three districts of the 249.

Based on 2006 enrollment, and 2008 ACTAAP scores, the local figures for the elementary campus were-- 583 students with a 16.2 to one student to teacher ratio. Just over 50-percent of the students received free or reduced-price lunches. The ACTAAP score for math was 85.5, with a score of 79.8 on literature for a combo score of 165.3.

At PHS the numbers were-- 480 students with a 12 to one student to teacher ratio. The percentile of students receiving free or reduced price lunches was 42.9-percent. Test scores were 58 and 58.7 for a combined score of 116.7.

The top high school in the state was Mt. Pleasant with 152 students, a 7.2 to one student to teacher ratio, 52.6-percent free or reduced lunch recipients and their test scores were 94 and 87.3 for a combo of 181.3.

Comparing other area schools. Rector ranked 170 overall by district, with their elementary school coming in at 191 and their high school at 195. Corning's elementary school ranked 182, while the high school was 156.

Ranked by district, Piggott was well-ahead of Paragould at #81, Greene County Tech at #94, Hoxie at #153, Marmaduke at #159.

It was also interesting to note that the schools that ranked lowest in the state also had the highest percentage of free and reduced-price lunches. In fact the Earle High School, which ranked #269, had 94.4-percent free or reduced-price lunches indicating that most students live below the federal poverty level.

There also appears to be a big impact from a lower student-to-teacher ratio as was the fact in Mt. Pleasant.

All the hard numbers are available at www.schooldigger.com and I'll have a more in-depth report in the Aug. 20 print edition of The Piggott Times.