Summary:
Zip code 72438 is home to a single school, Buffalo Island Central Elementary School, which serves students from Pre-Kindergarten through 6th grade and is part of the Buffalo Island Central School District.
This school stands out for consistently outperforming state averages across all core subjects. In the 2025-2026 school year, 56.7% of students were proficient in Mathematics, compared to the state average of 44.1%, and 49.5% were proficient in English Language Arts, versus the state's 39.4%. The school also shows a strong year-over-year improvement, with a remarkable 13.6 percentage point jump in Math proficiency from the previous year. However, a notable pattern emerges in Math performance by grade: proficiency dips to 35.4% in 4th grade before surging to 76.9% in 6th grade, suggesting a challenging transition point that the school effectively addresses in later grades. Science is a relative weakness, with scores declining from 55.4% in 3rd grade to 40.4% in 6th grade, though it still slightly exceeds the state average.
The school serves a community with high economic need—67.08% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch—yet it achieves strong results, earning its district a 4-star rating and a rank of 63rd out of 251 districts in Arkansas. With a favorable student-teacher ratio of 13.9:1 and per-student spending of $12,701, the school appears to allocate resources effectively. While its ranking has seen a slight decline from the 76th percentile in 2023-2024 to a projected 67th percentile for 2025-2026, its consistent outperformance of state averages and dramatic improvements in Math make it a standout choice for families in the area.
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