Barton Junior High School

Barton Junior High School in El Dorado, AR, serves 540 students in grades 5 through 8 within the El Dorado School District, a mid-sized school in a community where 65% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. The school has shown a strong upward trend in state rankings over the past decade, recently reaching its highest position in ten years (58th percentile), signaling a positive trajectory for families considering this school.

Barton’s standout feature is its exceptional Algebra program: in the most recent testing, 95.2% of students taking the Algebra exam were proficient, compared to just 36.9% statewide and 51.5% district-wide. This is a world-class performance that far exceeds nearby schools like Norphlet Middle School and Washington Middle School, which don’t report Algebra scores. Even in 8th-grade math (non-Algebra), Barton students achieve a 48.7% proficiency rate, well above the state average of 36.2%. The school also benefits from a low student-teacher ratio of 11.8:1, better than Norphlet’s 13.9:1 and Washington’s 13.3:1, which supports more individualized attention.

However, Barton’s performance varies by grade: 7th-grade scores lag behind 8th-grade in math (36.6% vs. 48.7%), English (35.3% vs. 38.2%), and reading (38.7% vs. 41.5%). This suggests the school’s 8th-grade math program is a key strength, while other areas offer room for growth. Compared to Norphlet, which has a lower poverty rate (58.88%) and more consistent across-the-board scores, Barton excels in targeted advanced math but trails slightly in overall proficiency. For parents, Barton offers a compelling choice with a specialized Algebra program and a supportive student-teacher ratio, making it a school on the rise that effectively serves its high-needs community.