White Co. Central Elem. School, Judsonia AR

Original Research by School Decision on White Co. Central Elem. School

White County Central Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through sixth grade in a rural part of White County, Arkansas. The school is part of the White County Central School District, and its attendance area includes a portion of the town of Judsonia, a small historic community located northeast of Searcy. Judsonia was originally a commercial center built on the strawberry trade, but after a bypass and a devastating tornado reshaped the downtown, the town has become primarily a residential community. Its civic anchors include a WPA-era Community Building in a National Register Historic District, a town library, and a park. Growth has been modest, and many residents likely commute to nearby Searcy for work.

The school itself is a neighborhood elementary that serves a largely homogeneous student body. The enrollment is predominantly white, with a much smaller share of Hispanic students and a very small number of multiracial students. A substantial share of the student population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a common indicator of economic need in rural Arkansas schools. Data on the share of students receiving special education services or English language supports was not available in the data provided.

State testing results from the 2024-25 school year, using Arkansas’s ATLAS assessment, show a mixed picture across subjects and grade levels. In math, proficiency rates varied noticeably by grade. A high share of fifth graders met the proficiency bar, but the rates for third, fourth, and sixth graders were lower, with a majority of students in those grades scoring below the proficient threshold. In English language arts, the pattern was similar. A substantial share of fifth graders were proficient, while the shares for third, fourth, and sixth graders were lower, with only a minority of students in those grades reaching proficiency. Science results followed a comparable pattern, with a solid share of fifth graders proficient and lower rates for the other tested grades.

Across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among districts in White County. That positioning reflects the strength of the fifth-grade results, which were notably above the typical performance in the county. It also means that the school’s lower grades, particularly third and sixth, are areas where a parent may want to look into this further with the school, as those results were below the school’s own best performance.

Because the school serves only early and middle elementary grades, it has no graduation rate to report, and no data on chronic absenteeism was available for this school. The district brief on parent-relevant changes, such as boundary adjustments or new program launches, turned up little of lasting impact, so none are described here.

The housing context in the Judsonia area, based on the school’s ZIP code, shows home values that are noticeably below the national median and a state median that is also below the national figure. Mortgage rates at the time of this data were above recent lows, and the national unemployment rate was moderate.

For a family considering this school, the picture is of a small, rural elementary where a dedicated cohort of fifth graders posted strong academic results on state tests, while performance in the lower and upper elementary grades was more mixed. The school serves a community with economic need, and its student body has little racial or ethnic diversity. The setting is a small town with a quiet pace and limited commercial activity, where secondary education for most students in the area occurs in Searcy. Families looking for a school where a single grade-level cohort stands out and where other grades show room for growth will find the data worth examining closely.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 6 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 13 pts above state median

Grade 583%

School 83% · District 83%

▲ 50 pts above state median

Grade 653%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 15 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 34%

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 568%

School 68% · District 68%

▲ 34 pts above state median

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 44%

▲ 12 pts above state median

Science

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 42%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 5 pts above state median

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 28 pts above state median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 43%

▲ 9 pts above state median

This schoolWHITE CO. CENTRAL SCHOOL DIST., 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-income43%Higher-income40%3 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income36%Higher-income65%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income45%Higher-income61%16 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income47%Higher-income82%35 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income69%Higher-income65%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income45%Higher-income62%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income25%Higher-income48%23 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income35%Higher-income73%37 pp gap