Kipp Delta Elem Literacy Acad, Helena AR

Original Research by School Decision on Kipp Delta Elem Literacy Acad

KIPP Delta Elementary Literacy Academy is a public charter school in Helena, Arkansas, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It is part of the KIPP Delta Public Schools network, a group of charter schools operating in the Arkansas Delta region. The school’s name signals its central academic focus: building foundational reading and writing skills at the elementary level.

The student body is almost entirely Black, reflecting the demographics of the surrounding community. Every student at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator that the school serves a population facing significant economic hardship. This is consistent with the context of Helena-West Helena, a small, consolidated river city that is among the poorest in the nation, with an economic base of agriculture, barge traffic, and some tourism tied to blues heritage. The city’s population has declined markedly over recent decades, and the local economy has not recovered from the closure of a major rubber plant in the 1970s.

On the 2024-25 Arkansas ATLAS assessments, proficiency rates for KIPP Delta Elementary Literacy Academy were low in nearly every tested subject and grade. In third-grade math, English language arts, and science, proficiency rates were at about the same level. Fourth-grade performance was somewhat higher in English language arts and science, but low in math. Fifth-grade results were the weakest, with especially low proficiency in science. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages results across tested subjects and grades, placed it above the midpoint among the small number of districts in Phillips County. That is a relative position within a county that has very few school districts, and it should be read in that narrow context. A parent looking at these results will want to discuss with the school how it is addressing literacy and math instruction, as the numbers indicate most students are not yet meeting state standards.

The school serves only elementary grades, so there is no high school graduation rate to report. Data on special education identification and English learner status was not available in the source materials.

Given that the school is a charter within a network known for its college-preparatory mission, a family considering this school may want to ask about the specific curriculum and interventions used to build early literacy, how the school supports students who enter below grade level, and what the transition looks like to the middle school within the KIPP Delta network. The broader community context of economic distress and population loss means that the school is operating in an environment where many families face instability. This does not define the quality of instruction, but it is a factor a parent should weigh alongside the academic data.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 25% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 27% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 516%

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

▼ 16 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 18% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 10 pts below state median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 13%

▼ 21 pts below state median

Science

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 18% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 25% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 58%

School 8% · District 12% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median

This schoolKIPP DELTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 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.