Bradley Elementary School

Bradley Elementary School is a small, rural K-6 school in Bradley, Arkansas, serving 166 students within the Emerson Taylor Bradley School District. The school faces significant challenges, with 75.9% of its students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, a rate that has been rising sharply. While the district overall is high-performing, Bradley Elementary has seen a troubling decline, dropping to a 1-star rating (25th percentile) for the 2025-2026 school year, a stark contrast to its 3-star rating a decade ago.

The most striking finding is the performance gap between Bradley and its district counterpart, Taylor Elementary School. Despite being in the same district, Taylor’s proficiency rates are nearly double Bradley’s in Math (60.8% vs. 28%) and Science (58.4% vs. 33.3%). This disparity is even more puzzling given that Bradley has advantages that should help: a lower student-teacher ratio (9.7:1 vs. 15.2:1) and higher per-pupil spending ($12,103 vs. $9,911). The fact that these resources don’t translate into better outcomes suggests the school’s challenges are deeply tied to the high poverty rate, which is more than double that of Taylor (75.9% vs. 37.8%).

Grade-level data reveals specific weak points, with 4th grade showing alarmingly low reading proficiency (9.1%) and 6th grade struggling in English (22.7%) and Science (18.2%). However, 3rd and 5th graders perform closer to state averages in some subjects, indicating pockets of strength. Compared to other nearby schools, Bradley outperforms Lafayette County Elementary (bottom 3% of the state) and is roughly comparable to Fouke Elementary School, which has a similar poverty rate. This suggests that while Bradley’s performance is not an outlier for its demographic profile in the region, it is a stark outlier within its own high-performing district, highlighting the need for targeted, non-academic support to address the barriers to learning.