Acorn Elementary School, Mena AR

Original Research by School Decision on Acorn Elementary School

Acorn Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the Ouachita River School District, located near the small town of Mena in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas. The school sits in a rural setting within Polk County, and the town of Mena itself functions as a modest commercial and civic center for the surrounding area, with a historic downtown, the Polk County Courthouse, and employers such as the regional health system and the school district. The local economy has historically relied on timber, agriculture, and outdoor tourism tied to the nearby Ouachita National Forest. Growth has been slow and the population stable, consistent with many rural Arkansas communities.

More than three-quarters of the school’s students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a substantial share that indicates a high level of economic need among the families the school serves. The student body is predominantly white, with small numbers of Hispanic, multiracial, and American Indian or Alaska Native students. The school is not a charter or magnet school. The Ouachita River School District did not have any major recent changes to report on matters such as school closures, curriculum shifts, or property tax measures that were found in publicly available sources.

When it comes to academic performance, the picture is mixed and varies by grade level and subject, as measured by Arkansas’s ATLAS state assessments. In mathematics, the school’s performance shows an upward trajectory across the tested grades. Third-grade proficiency was below the midpoint, fifth grade was also on the lower side, but fourth and sixth grades both posted proficiency rates that were notably higher and among the school’s stronger results. In English language arts, the pattern is somewhat different. Proficiency rates in third and fourth grades were around the midpoint, fifth grade was weaker, and sixth grade was clearly stronger, reaching a level that stands out as a high point for the school in that subject. In science, the school was more consistent, with proficiency rates across grades three, four, five, and six all clustered in a moderately strong range, with third grade posting the highest result among them. Looking at the school’s overall proficiency across all tested subjects and grades, and comparing it to other schools in the county, the data places Acorn Elementary above the top of the range seen among the county's districts, a position that reflects its notably strong results in several grade-level and subject combinations offsetting the weaker ones. A parent may want to discuss with the school the variation between grade levels, particularly the drop in both math and English proficiency that appears in fifth grade.

Because Acorn Elementary serves only elementary and middle grades, there is no graduation rate data for the school. Information on special education enrollment and English learner populations was not available, nor were chronic absenteeism rates or discipline data. The school’s Title I status was not provided. For families considering the area, housing values in the zip code covering the school were moderately below the state average and well below the national average, reflecting the lower cost of living typical of this region.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 44% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 465%

School 65% · District 61% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 37% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median

Grade 669%

School 69% · District 66% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 345%

School 45% · District 47% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 46% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 41% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 657%

School 57% · District 55% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median

Science

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 58% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 19 pts above state median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 49% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 52% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 18 pts above state median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 50% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median

This schoolOUACHITA RIVER 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-income37%Higher-income82%45 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income52%Higher-income82%30 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income15%Higher-income53%38 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income42%Higher-income64%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income39%Higher-income27%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income15%Higher-income47%31 pp gap