The top reported proficiency rate is 21% in Science. The lowest is 17% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Bearden High School
Bearden High School is the only secondary school in the Bearden School District, serving seventh through twelfth graders in a small, rural town in Ouachita County, Arkansas. The school shares a campus with the district’s elementary school near the town’s compact downtown, which was rebuilt publicly reported in recent decades and is considered a local point of pride. The student body is small, and the community it draws from is both tight-knit and economically strained. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a rate that places the school in a high-poverty context. The racial makeup is predominantly white and Black, with small shares of Hispanic and multiracial students; Asian students are a very small presence. The school does not appear to operate as a magnet or charter, and no Title I status was provided in the data, though the poverty level would typically qualify the school for that federal support.
Academic performance on Arkansas’s ATLAS assessment is low across the tested grades and subjects. In both seventh and eighth grade, the share of students scoring proficient or above in math, English language arts, and science falls well below a quarter, and in most subjects it is closer to one in six students reaching that bar. The eighth-grade cohort in particular shows consistently low results across all three subjects. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages rates across all tested grades and subjects, sits below the midpoint when compared with other districts in Ouachita County. The comparison set is small—three other districts reported data—so the gap is notable. A family looking at these scores would want to ask the school directly about what academic supports are in place and how the school is working to address these outcomes.
The school does not have state-reported graduation rate data available in this record, and chronic absenteeism figures are also absent. Without a graduation rate, it is difficult to gauge how many students persist through the upper grades to completion. Parents may wish to ask the district for that number directly. No information on Advanced Placement, career and technical education pathways, dual credit, or other program offerings was provided, so the breadth of the high school curriculum beyond the core is not clear from this data.
Bearden itself is a rural town that has been losing population steadily since the last census. Its economy historically depended on lumber milling and a nearby naval ammunition depot, but those industries have contracted or left. Many residents now commute to plants in the Camden area. The town’s housing market is very affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, with home values well below the Arkansas median. The local economy is weak, and the school district is one of the remaining larger employers in town. A family moving here would find a low-cost housing market, but also limited local retail and services, and few signs of new residential development.
For a parent or resident trying to understand what this school offers, the picture is one of a small, high-poverty rural school where academic proficiency rates are low and the community is struggling economically. The school has a stable enrollment across the grade span, and the district rebuilt its facilities publicly reported, which suggests some investment in the physical plant. But without more detail on programs, staffing, discipline, or post-graduate outcomes, a prospective family would need to dig deeper with the school itself—visiting, asking about course offerings, and learning how it supports students who are behind. This is a school that serves a community with real challenges, and its test scores reflect that reality. It is not a school that will appear on lists of high performers, but for families already rooted in Bearden or considering the area for its low housing costs, it represents the local educational option, one that warrants careful inquiry about what happens inside the classroom beyond the numbers.
See more original research from School Decision →