Summary:
The Lavaca School District is home to a single elementary school, Lavaca Elementary School, which serves students from Pre-Kindergarten through 4th grade in a rural Arkansas community with an enrollment of 322 students.
Lavaca Elementary School presents a mixed academic profile. While the school has shown year-over-year improvement in core subjects like English Language Arts (rising from 37.4% to 43.1% proficiency) and Mathematics (from 41.6% to 44%), its state ranking has declined over the past three years, dropping from the 66th percentile to the 45th percentile. The school spends $12,033 per student, a significant investment, yet this has not translated into top-tier results across all subjects. Notably, the school outperforms the state average in English Language Arts but underperforms in Reading (37.9% vs. 40.4% state) and Science (37.1% vs. 44% state). Over half of the students (51.55%) are eligible for free or reduced lunch, indicating a moderate level of economic disadvantage.
The most striking finding is a dramatic drop in performance between 3rd and 4th grade. In 3rd grade, students meet or exceed state averages in all subjects, but by 4th grade, they fall significantly behind, especially in Science (28% vs. 44.4% state) and Reading (33.4% vs. 40.9% state). This "3rd grade peak" suggests a potential issue with the 4th-grade curriculum or a difficult transition in academic expectations. The persistent weaknesses in Reading and Science, combined with the declining state ranking, indicate that targeted interventions for 4th-grade instruction and the science curriculum are urgently needed to reverse the downward trend and build on the strengths shown in the lower grades.
Thank you for your feedback!