Summary:
The two public schools in zip code 72355 (Lexa, Arkansas) serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade within the Barton School District, a district ranked in the bottom 9th percentile in the state where 100% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Barton High School stands out for its high graduation rate of 94.8%, significantly above the state average of 90.1%, despite low academic proficiency scores. This creates a paradox where the school successfully keeps students on track to graduate, yet only 4.7% of students are proficient in Geometry—a massive gap compared to the state average of 26.4%. In contrast, Barton Elementary School shows a bright spot in 3rd-grade Science, where 48.8% of students are proficient, outperforming the state average of 45.4%. Both schools maintain favorable student-teacher ratios (12:1 at the elementary and 11.6:1 at the high school) and spend over $14,000 per student, which is notably higher than the national average.
Despite this high spending, academic proficiency across all core subjects remains well below state averages. At Barton Elementary, proficiency rates are 21.8% in ELA, 18.4% in Math, and 30.2% in Science, compared to state averages of 39.4%, 44.1%, and 44% respectively. A troubling trend emerges as students age: 3rd-grade Math proficiency drops from 30.2% to 17.1% by 6th grade, and Science proficiency plummets from 48.8% to 14.6% over the same period. This suggests foundational skills are not being built upon effectively in upper elementary and middle school years, pointing to deep-seated socioeconomic challenges that require more than financial resources to overcome.
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