Summary:
This analysis examines five elementary schools in zip code 72076 (Jacksonville, AR), serving grades K-5 (with one offering Pre-K), where the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District ranks in the bottom 10% of Arkansas districts and the Arkansas Lighthouse Charter Schools district ranks slightly higher.
Bayou Meto Elementary School stands out as the top performer, ranking in the 29th percentile statewide and is the only school in the area to exceed the state average in any subject, notably with 47.2% of 5th graders proficient in English Language Arts. In contrast, Jacksonville Elementary School is the lowest-performing school, ranking in the 0th percentile with proficiency rates in the single digits or low teens across all core subjects. Jacksonville Lighthouse Elementary is a significant outlier in spending at $30,189 per student—more than double the next highest school—yet its academic outcomes are mixed, with strong English Language Arts and Science scores but the lowest Math proficiency in the area at 15.2%. Murrell Taylor Elementary School and Bobby G Lester Elementary School fall in the middle, with Murrell Taylor ranking in the 22nd percentile and Bobby G Lester in the 9th percentile.
A key takeaway is that high spending does not guarantee success, as demonstrated by Jacksonville Lighthouse’s high costs and middling results, while Bayou Meto achieves the best outcomes with the second-lowest spending. The district shows a wide performance gap, with Bayou Meto and Murrell Taylor performing near state averages while Jacksonville Elementary and Bobby G Lester are in the bottom 10%. Across all schools, Mathematics is a universal challenge, with an average proficiency of just 22.9% compared to the state average of 44.1%, and 3rd grade emerges as a critical point for early literacy and numeracy intervention.
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