Summary:
In zip code 72020, there is one elementary school, Bradford Elementary School, serving grades PK through 6 in the Bradford School District of Bradford, Arkansas, with 249 students and a 100% free/reduced lunch rate indicating high economic need.
Bradford Elementary School is on a clear upward trajectory, improving its state ranking from the 8th percentile (0 stars) in 2023-2024 to the 28th percentile (1 star) in 2025-2026. The school showed year-over-year proficiency gains in all four tested subjects, with the most dramatic improvement in Science, which nearly doubled from 22.9% to 40.2%—now close to the state average of 44%. However, Mathematics remains a critical weakness, with an overall proficiency rate of just 22.9%, less than half the state average of 44.1%. Third-grade math is particularly concerning at only 14.8% proficient versus the state's 45.5%.
A notable pattern is a sharp drop-off in 6th-grade performance across all subjects, with English Language Arts falling from 45.1% proficiency in 4th grade to just 15.1% in 6th grade, suggesting a possible transition challenge. The school spends $12,211 per student, a significant investment for a small rural district, and while it is making progress, the data indicates that overcoming the challenges of 100% student poverty is a long-term process. The improvement in rankings and test scores is a positive sign that this investment may be starting to yield results, but the school still has a considerable gap to close to reach state averages.
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