Summary:
The schools in zip code 72840, located in Hartman, Arkansas, consist of two schools—Westside Elementary School (grades PK-5) and Westside High School (grades 6-12)—serving 585 students within the Westside School District (Johnson), which ranks 212th out of 251 districts in Arkansas.
Westside Elementary School is the standout performer in the district, consistently exceeding state averages in several 5th-grade subjects despite nearly 99% of its students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. For example, 5th-grade math proficiency reaches 57.9% (above the state average of 45%), and science proficiency hits 52.6% (above 43.8%). In contrast, Westside High School shows a dramatic academic decline after 5th grade, with 8th-grade English Language Arts proficiency dropping to just 4.8% and math to 10.7%. The high school paradoxically boasts a strong 94.5% graduation rate and a very low 0.7% dropout rate, yet its academic proficiency is critically low across most subjects, except for a bright spot in Biology (45.5% vs. 42.7% state average).
Resource allocation reveals an interesting contrast: the high school has a more favorable student-teacher ratio (10.8:1) and spends $12,405 per student, while the elementary school has a higher ratio (17.6:1) but spends more per student ($13,964). Despite these resources, the elementary school achieves far better results, suggesting the high school’s challenges stem from deeper instructional or curricular issues rather than funding or class size. For parents, this means Westside Elementary School offers strong foundational education, but families should be aware of the steep academic drop-off when students transition to the middle grades at Westside High School.
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