Friendship Academy Little Rock Elementary

Friendship Academy Little Rock Elementary is a small K-5 charter school in Little Rock, AR, serving about 200 students as part of the Friendship Aspire Academies Arkansas district, and it serves a high-poverty community with 76.5% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

The most striking feature of this school is its exceptional performance in Mathematics, where 51.5% of all students are proficient—a rate that not only beats the district average of 35.4% but also surpasses the state average of 44.1%. This math success is especially pronounced in 3rd grade, where 71.4% of students are proficient, outperforming even top-ranked schools like Gibbs Magnet Elementary School (55.1% in 3rd grade math). However, the school has a "Jekyll and Hyde" academic profile: while it excels in math, it struggles significantly in English Language Arts (26.4% proficient), Reading (22.9%), and Science (27.4%), all well below state averages. This creates a unique situation where the school is a top performer in one subject and a low performer in others, a pattern not seen in nearby schools like Forest Heights Stem Academy or Gibbs Magnet Elementary School, which maintain more consistent scores across subjects.

Encouragingly, the school is on a clear upward trajectory, with its state ranking improving for three consecutive years and test scores rising across all subjects. Math proficiency has nearly doubled from 27.5% to 51.5% in just two years, and English Language Arts has improved from 20.1% to 26.4%. This rate of improvement sets it apart from many struggling neighbors in the Little Rock School District, such as Stephens Elementary and Bale Elementary School. The key question for parents is whether the school can replicate its math success in other subjects and sustain its math gains beyond 3rd grade, where proficiency drops sharply to 28.5% in 5th grade. If it can, Friendship Academy has strong potential to become a solid academic option in the area.