Summary:
The Concord School District is a small, rural district in Arkansas serving approximately 370 students across two schools: Concord Elementary School (grades K-6) and Concord High School (grades 7-12). The district earns a 3-star rating and ranks in the 65th percentile statewide, but the two schools present very different performance profiles.
Concord High School is the district's standout, consistently earning a 4-star rating and ranking in the 80th percentile among Arkansas high schools. It boasts a strong 90.6% graduation rate, an exceptionally low 0.5% dropout rate, and an incredible student-teacher ratio of just 4.4 to 1. The high school excels in mathematics (50% proficient vs. 44.1% state) and biology (50% vs. 42.7% state), though it struggles with advanced math courses like Algebra (17.7% proficient) and English Language Arts (37.5%). In contrast, Concord Elementary School has a 3-star rating but has shown improvement, moving from the 39th to the 58th percentile. It performs at or above state averages in English Language Arts (42.8%) and Reading (46.6%), but is slightly below in math (43.8%) and science (43.8%).
A critical finding is a dramatic "4th grade slump" at the elementary school, where proficiency rates in all subjects drop sharply from 3rd to 4th grade—for example, math falls from 48.2% to 23.5% and reading from 51.7% to 29.4%. This suggests a specific instructional challenge at that grade level. The district invests heavily per student ($17,759 at the elementary, $14,857 at the high school), and the high school's low student-teacher ratio indicates significant resources. However, the elementary school serves a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students (67.51% free/reduced lunch vs. 50.29% at the high school), and the 4th-grade slump raises questions about whether resources are being effectively targeted to support students at this critical transition point.
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