This work aims at describing the behavior of high-strength reinforced concrete (HSRC) beams under short-term ultimate loads with concrete compressive strengths higher than 50 MPa. A plastic approach besides a cross sectional analysis is employed to primarily trace the nonlinear response of nineteen HSRC simply supported beams for which experimental results are available. This proposed theoretical approach is able to acceptably match the experimental data with minor overestimation of flexural moments. Closed-form expressions to evaluate ductility indexes regarding deflections and curvatures as well as plastic rotation capacities are also proposed herein. Predictions of the National Brazilian Regulation for design of concrete structures NBR6118 in terms of ultimate flexural moments are also computed for comparison. A complete assessment of ductility in which plastic rotation capacities are computed for the studied beams is also given. It is found that the flexural ductility of a member could be increased with the use of high strength concrete. The use of a maximum tension steel ratio to guarantee a minimum flexural of ductility is highlighted.