Spring Hill Elementary School

Spring Hill Elementary School in Hope, AR, is a small PK-6 school serving 348 students in the Spring Hill School District, a 3-star district that ranks in the 60th percentile statewide, and serves a community where about 62% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Spring Hill stands out for its strong performance in English Language Arts (ELA), Reading, and Science, where it consistently beats state averages. For example, its Science proficiency rate of 57.9% is nearly 14 points above the state average, with 5th graders achieving an impressive 74% proficiency. Compared to nearby schools, Spring Hill significantly outperforms Wm. Jefferson Clinton Primary School in the Hope School District (7.41 miles away) in all subjects—50.5% vs. 33.6% in ELA, for instance—and is in a completely different academic tier than Lafayette County Elementary (15.96 miles away), where proficiency rates are three to five times lower. However, Mathematics is a clear weakness: Spring Hill’s 33.1% proficiency rate falls well below the state average of 44.1%, a stark contrast to the nearby 5-star Genoa Central Elementary School (19.45 miles away), which excels in Math with a 72.6% proficiency rate.

An interesting finding is that Spring Hill achieves these results with relatively efficient spending ($10,135 per student), compared to lower-performing schools like Lafayette County ($17,858) and Wm. Jefferson Clinton ($15,367). The school has seen a decline from its peak 5-star rating in 2016 and 4-star ratings through 2020, settling into a 3-star range with a recent dip to 2 stars in 2024-2025, suggesting lingering pandemic-era challenges, especially in Math. For parents, Spring Hill offers a strong foundation in reading and science, but the math gap is a key area to watch, and the school could look to Genoa Central as a model for improvement.