Summary:
The city of Brockwell, Arkansas, is served by two public schools within the Izard County Consolidated School District, which together educate students from 5th through 12th grade in a community where over 98% of students come from low-income households.
Izard County Cons Middle School (grades 5-8) is a standout for its strong upward momentum, recently jumping to the 63rd percentile in state rankings and outperforming state averages in Reading, Science, and especially Algebra, where 46.7% of 8th graders are proficient compared to the state's 36.9%. In contrast, Izard County Consolidated High School (grades 9-12) excels in Biology, with 56.5% of all students proficient and an extraordinary 92.8% of 9th graders passing the exam, far exceeding state averages. However, the high school struggles with Algebra, where only 11.1% of students are proficient, a sharp drop from the middle school's success. The high school also boasts a very low student-teacher ratio of 7.6:1 and spends $17,562 per student, which helps it achieve a strong 94.4% graduation rate despite lower overall test scores.
Key takeaways include a clear disconnect in math performance between the two schools, suggesting a need for better curriculum alignment between 8th and 9th grade. The high school's 9th-grade Biology results are a remarkable outlier worth investigating for replication. Overall, the district earns a 3-star rating and is ranked 112th out of 251 in Arkansas, demonstrating that strategic investments in small class sizes and targeted instruction can help students succeed even in the face of significant economic challenges.
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