Summary:
The Friendship Aspire Academies Arkansas district includes two middle schools serving grades 6 through 8, both located in central Arkansas and facing significant academic challenges compared to state averages.
Friendship Aspire Academy Southeast Middle School Pine Bluff is the stronger performer in this small cohort, with 236 students and a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.8:1. It has shown a clear upward trend, improving its state ranking from the 12th percentile in 2023-2024 to the 27th percentile in 2025-2026. In the most recent school year, Pine Bluff achieved 31.9% proficiency in English Language Arts and 30.2% in Math, significantly outpacing its sister school. In contrast, Friendship Aspire Academy Little Rock Middle School is a much smaller school with only 62 students and a very low student-to-teacher ratio of 7.8:1, yet it struggles the most. It holds a 0-star rating and ranks in the 12th percentile, with proficiency rates of just 19.8% in ELA and 22.4% in Math. Both schools are well below the state averages of 39.4% in ELA and 44.1% in Math, with the largest gap appearing in Science, where both schools are roughly 20 percentage points behind.
A key paradox is that Little Rock’s small class sizes do not translate into better outcomes, suggesting challenges beyond teacher availability, such as a higher percentage of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (77.42% free/reduced lunch). However, both schools showed substantial year-over-year improvement from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, with Pine Bluff’s ELA proficiency jumping from 21% to 31.9% and Little Rock’s from 12.9% to 19.8%. This positive momentum, combined with Pine Bluff’s consistent outperformance, indicates that the district’s overall ranking is being dragged down by the Little Rock campus, and replicating Pine Bluff’s strategies could be key to future success.
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