The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in Math. The lowest is 34% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Alma Intermediate School
Alma Intermediate School serves grades three through five in the Alma School District, a small city in western Arkansas’s Crawford County. The school is one of four campuses in the district, sitting on its own site within the city’s footprint. For a family looking at this stage of elementary education, the school offers a conventional intermediate setting: a single building that concentrates upper elementary grades, which can ease the transition from primary school before students move to middle school.
The academic picture is mixed. On state assessments administered through Arkansas’s ATLAS program, proficiency rates across math, English language arts, and science fall below a majority of students in every tested grade and subject. In math, roughly two out of five students scored at the proficient or above level in each grade. In English language arts, the share was a bit lower, around one in three. Science results were slightly wider: third graders performed comparably to math, while fourth graders showed a lower rate and fifth graders a middling one. Overall, when the school’s performance is stacked against other districts in Crawford County, it lands above the midpoint in a combined proficiency index. That means Alma Intermediate is not the highest-performing nor the lowest in the county, but sits on the stronger side of the middle. A parent may want to ask the school how it supports students who are not yet meeting proficiency, and how it challenges those who are.
The student body is predominantly white, with small percentages of Hispanic students, students identifying as two or more races, American Indian students, and even smaller shares of Black and Asian students. Just over half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a context of moderate economic diversity. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the records we reviewed, so a family with a child in either category would want to ask the school directly about its services, staffing, and inclusion practices.
Alma itself is a small city with a distinctive identity. Its nickname, “Spinach Capital of the World,” comes from the Allen Canning Company, which historically canned a large share of the nation’s spinach. The local economy now relies heavily on highway traffic from Interstates 40 and 49, which intersect near town. The city has grown steadily over recent decades, and in a prior year it annexed land that includes a championship golf course. The built environment is oriented around those highway corridors rather than a dense downtown, though a small downtown area features Popeye Park with a bronze statue of the cartoon sailor. Parks include Lake Alma Park with a bike trail loop and disc golf, an aquatic park, and walking trails. The district’s four schools are on separate campuses; the high school houses a performing arts center that doubles as a civic venue.
No recent parent-relevant changes for the Alma School District were confirmed in publicly available sources. The district appears stable in its operations, with no major bond initiatives, boundary shifts, or leadership transitions reported in the time frame we examined. That may be reassuring to families, though it also means there is little public discussion of district priorities or upcoming adjustments.
For a parent weighing this school, the takeaway is a typical mid-sized intermediate school in a small, growing city. The academic results are modest compared to state averages, but the school sits above the midpoint among its county peers. The community is affordable, with housing values that are roughly in line with the state average, and the town offers a range of recreational amenities. A family should visit, talk with teachers, and inquire about targeted support and enrichment programs, especially since the available data does not detail course access, staffing ratios, or discipline climate. Without those details, the school’s day-to-day character remains best assessed in person.
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