Seventh Street Elementary School

Seventh Street Elementary School in North Little Rock, AR, is a public school serving 263 students in grades PK through 5, and it is part of the North Little Rock School District.

Seventh Street Elementary is currently ranked last in the state (491 out of 491 elementary schools) and has been in the bottom 1% for nearly a decade. Test scores across all subjects are critically low, often less than one-third of the state average. A particularly troubling trend is that student performance declines as they progress through the grades—for example, 3rd graders scored 13.3% proficient in English Language Arts, but by 5th grade, that number dropped to just 3.2%. This "widening gap" is more pronounced at Seventh Street than at other low-performing nearby schools like Boone Park Elementary School or Glenview Elementary School.

Despite spending a significant $20,227 per student—far more than the district average and much higher than the high-performing Lakewood Elementary School ($12,901)—Seventh Street produces the worst academic outcomes in the state. This is especially striking because Lakewood, located just 2.5 miles away and also in the North Little Rock School District, serves a similar population of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds yet ranks in the 79th percentile with proficiency rates 5-6 times higher. The school also has a favorable student-teacher ratio of 13.5:1, which is better than Lakewood's 18.4:1, suggesting the challenges are not simply about class size or funding but are deeply rooted in school-specific practices, leadership, and culture.