Reed Elementary School

Reed Elementary School in Dumas, AR, serves 368 students from Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade in the Dumas School District, a community where all students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Despite a favorable student-to-teacher ratio of 13.8:1 and spending $19,505 per student—significantly more than nearby schools—Reed Elementary is ranked in the bottom 2% of Arkansas elementary schools, with proficiency rates roughly one-third to one-half of state averages.

Compared to Star City Jimmy Brown Elementary School and McGehee Elementary School, which serve similarly high-poverty populations, Reed’s academic performance is catastrophically low. For example, in mathematics, only 13% of Reed students are proficient versus 36% at Star City and 46.7% at McGehee. The school also shows a severe academic slide: 3rd graders have a 25% math proficiency rate, which plummets to just 1.8% by 5th grade—a 93% drop. In contrast, McGehee’s 5th graders outperform their 3rd graders, suggesting a fundamental breakdown in learning progression at Reed.

This paradox of high spending and low results points to critical issues with resource allocation and instructional effectiveness. While Reed has been stuck in the bottom 10% of Arkansas elementary schools for a decade, nearby schools like McGehee have shown fluctuations and even improvement. The data suggests that Reed’s struggles are not solely due to poverty but are significantly influenced by school-level factors like leadership, curriculum, and teaching quality. Without a radical, data-driven intervention, the school is unlikely to break out of this chronic cycle of underperformance.