Summary:
In zip code 72365, there is one elementary school, Marked Tree Elementary School, serving grades PK through 6 with 309 students in the Marked Tree School District, an area with a high level of economic need where nearly 74% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Marked Tree Elementary School consistently ranks in the bottom 15-25% of Arkansas elementary schools, currently placing in the 15th percentile (1-star rating). Despite spending a notably high $14,754 per student—well above national averages—academic proficiency remains low across all subjects. The strongest area is mathematics, with 36.2% of all students proficient, and 3rd-grade math proficiency (46.4%) actually exceeds the state average. However, other subjects lag significantly: only 23.2% are proficient in reading, 23.7% in science, and 21.0% in English Language Arts (ELA). The student-teacher ratio is 16.5:1.
A critical finding is a dramatic academic drop-off in 4th grade, where proficiency rates plummet to just 10.8% in both ELA and reading, compared to higher 3rd-grade scores. This suggests a potential challenge in the transition to 4th-grade curriculum. On a positive note, the school shows strong year-over-year improvement from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, with double-digit gains in math (+10.8 percentage points) and significant gains in reading (+8.8) and ELA (+6.0). This upward momentum indicates that recent instructional changes may be starting to take effect, even as the school works to overcome the challenges associated with high poverty levels.
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