Summary:
In zip code 72455 (Pocahontas, AR), there are two middle-level schools serving grades 4 through 9, both part of the Pocahontas School District, which is ranked in the 13th percentile statewide and holds a 1-star rating.
Pocahontas Upper Elementary School (grades 4-6, enrollment 402) is the stronger academic performer in this area, consistently outperforming Pocahontas Junior High School (grades 7-9, enrollment 456) across all core subjects. For the 2025-2026 school year, Upper Elementary achieved a 34.1% proficiency rate in Mathematics compared to the Junior High's 26.9%, and a 31.4% rate in English Language Arts versus 21.0%. While both schools fall below state averages, Upper Elementary exceeds district averages, whereas the Junior High lags behind both district and state. Notably, the Junior High has a more favorable student-teacher ratio (12.5:1) than Upper Elementary (16.5:1), yet performs worse, suggesting factors like curriculum or student preparedness play a larger role than class size alone.
A key bright spot is that 9th graders at the Junior High taking Algebra achieved a 29.9% proficiency rate, which is higher than the state average of 25.3%. However, the Junior High also reports a 0.9% dropout rate, a critical signal of student disengagement at this level. Both schools serve a high-poverty population, with free/reduced lunch rates of 66.67% at the Junior High and 74.38% at Upper Elementary, a significant context for their below-state-average scores. Upper Elementary has shown year-over-year improvement in all subjects, while the Junior High has also improved but remains a "negative outlier" within its district, making it a key area for the Pocahontas School District to investigate.
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