Star City Jimmy Brown Elementary School, Star City AR

Original Research by School Decision on Star City Jimmy Brown Elementary School

Star City Jimmy Brown Elementary School serves kindergarten through fifth grade in the Star City School District, the only school district in Lincoln County. The school is located in the small rural county seat of Star City, a community of about a few thousand people set amid the rice, cotton, and soybean fields of southeast Arkansas. The town’s economy mixes agriculture with manufacturing, anchored by employers such as a Tyson Foods processing plant, a School Apparel factory, and wire-fabrication operations. Star City’s population has been declining over recent decades, and the built environment remains low-density, centered on a traditional courthouse square.

Jimmy Brown Elementary enrolls roughly six hundred students. The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial share of Black students and a smaller but present Hispanic population. A very large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a high level of economic need in the community. Housing in the area is notably affordable compared to both the Arkansas median and the national median. Home values and rents reflect a low cost of living, a factor many families weigh when considering relocation.

State assessment results from the 2024-25 school year, using Arkansas’s ATLAS test, show that proficiency rates across math, English language arts, and science are modest. In third, fourth, and fifth grades, the share of students scoring proficient or above in math and science typically falls below a third of test-takers, and in some cases below a quarter. ELA results are somewhat higher in fourth grade, but other grades hover similarly. The patterns are consistent across subjects and grades. Because Lincoln County contains only one school district, there is no meaningful comparison to neighboring districts; the school’s performance sits within its own context. A parent looking at these results would likely want to follow up with the school about the specific instructional supports available, particularly in math and early literacy.

No data on programs, course access, discipline rates, or staffing was reported for this school. No recent district-level changes, such as referendums, curriculum updates, or tax adjustments, were found in available public sources.

The school itself is part of a small-town district that also includes a middle school and a high school. The town provides a handful of civic anchors: a branch library, a county courthouse, a nearby state park with hiking and fishing, and seasonal festivals. A walking trail and plans for a community garden and a technical training center point to local initiatives, though the pace of growth is slow and the population continues to shrink.

For a family that values an affordable, rural setting and is comfortable with a modest academic profile, Jimmy Brown Elementary fits that picture. The poverty rate among students is high, and state test results are on the lower end, so a parent considering this school should seek out information about how the school addresses those challenges in the classroom.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 4 pts below state median

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 21 pts below state median

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 9 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 331%

School 31% · District 31%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 39%

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 26%

▼ 7 pts below state median

Science

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 28%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 30%

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 19%

▼ 13 pts below state median

This schoolSTAR CITY 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income29%Higher-income35%6 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income24%Higher-income35%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income25%Higher-income56%31 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income36%Higher-income30%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income18%Higher-income23%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income24%Higher-income39%15 pp gap