Summary:
The Star City School District is served by a single elementary school, Star City Jimmy Brown Elementary School, which educates students from Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade and faces significant socioeconomic challenges, with nearly all of its 679 students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
As the district's only elementary school, Star City Jimmy Brown Elementary stands out for its dramatic academic improvements in STEM subjects, even as it continues to rank in the bottom third of Arkansas elementary schools. The school's most impressive achievement is a massive year-over-year leap in Mathematics proficiency, which jumped from 25.5% to 36.0%, and Science proficiency, which rose from 25.5% to 35.7%—both representing over 10 percentage point gains. However, English Language Arts and Reading scores remained relatively flat, with Reading actually declining slightly from 34.8% to 33.3%. Despite these gains, the school's state ranking dropped from the 33rd percentile to the 29th percentile, indicating that other schools across Arkansas improved at an even faster pace. Notably, the elementary school outperforms its own district average in every subject, suggesting it is a relative bright spot compared to the district's middle and high schools.
Key metrics reveal a school operating under immense challenges but showing signs of progress. With a student-teacher ratio of 15.4:1 and spending of $11,372 per student, the school serves a population where 99.85% of students are economically disadvantaged. In the 2025-2026 school year, proficiency rates were 32.2% in English Language Arts, 33.3% in Reading, 36.0% in Mathematics, and 35.7% in Science—all below state averages but showing that targeted STEM interventions can yield significant results even in a high-poverty setting. The school's declining state ranking, despite its internal improvements, underscores the competitive nature of Arkansas's educational landscape.
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