Southwood Elementary School, Pinebluff AR

Original Research by School Decision on Southwood Elementary School

Southwood Elementary School serves students from kindergarten through sixth grade in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, as part of the Pine Bluff School District. The school sits in a city that combines government, industry, and a historic Black university, but one that has been losing population and grappling with aging infrastructure. The school itself is a straightforward neighborhood elementary building, with no charter or magnet designation.

Enrollment is small enough that a parent can expect a relatively contained environment. The student body is predominantly Black, with small numbers of white students and even fewer from Asian, Hispanic, or multiracial backgrounds. Nearly every child at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a reflection of the economic circumstances of the surrounding area. Housing in the neighborhood is among the most affordable in the state, and the local rental market is well below national averages, meaning a family rooted here will face a low cost of living.

On state assessments in math, English language arts, and science, the share of students scoring proficient or above is low in every tested grade. The figures are in single digits or the low teens for most grade levels, with sixth grade showing a somewhat higher rate in both math and reading. Science proficiency is especially weak, falling to the lowest level seen at the school in the grade five results. A parent looking at these numbers should know that the school’s overall proficiency index, as measured across all tested subjects and grades, sits above the midpoint among the school districts in Jefferson County. That context matters: the school is not the lowest-performing in the county, even if its absolute results are low enough that many families will want to understand what academic supports the school provides and how that trajectory continues into middle school.

Because Southwood Elementary does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to examine. Discipline data, chronic absenteeism rates, and staffing ratios were not available for this profile, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about student behavior trends, teacher turnover, and how many students miss significant amounts of school.

The Pine Bluff School District has been in a period of significant reorganization. In 2021 the state ordered the Dollarway School District to merge into Pine Bluff, expanding the district’s boundaries to include several nearby communities. The following year the district reorganized middle school grades into a junior high model, and in 2023 it consolidated high school and middle school students into single campuses. These changes have redrawn attendance zones and consolidated formerly separate school populations. For an elementary school, the ripple effects may be less direct, but the district-level instability could affect resource allocation, leadership continuity, and feeder school assignments as students move up.

For a family already living in the area, Southwood Elementary is the local public school. The low housing costs mean that the financial barrier to entry is low. But the academic numbers are sobering, and the district’s recent turbulence means the path ahead is not settled. A parent considering this school should seek a direct conversation about how the school addresses foundational skills in reading and math, what intervention programs exist, and how the district’s consolidation plans will shape the middle school experience for current Southwood students.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 38%

School 8% · District 9% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 47%

School 7% · District 8% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 6% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 18% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 11 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 14% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 410%

School 10% · District 11% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 14% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 634%

School 34% · District 18% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median

Science

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 12% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 47%

School 7% · District 4% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 53%

School 3% · District 7% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 614%

School 14% · District 10% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 19 pts below state median

This schoolPINE BLUFF SCHOOL DISTRICT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.