The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Math. The lowest is 43% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Clinton Elementary School
Clinton Elementary School serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade and is the sole elementary campus in the Clinton School District, a public district in the Van Buren County seat of Clinton, Arkansas. The school is situated on Yellowjacket Lane, and its enrollment is substantial for an elementary building serving those grades.
The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population making up the next largest group. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a figure that places the school in a high-poverty context. This economic profile is consistent with the community around it. Clinton is a small rural county seat with a historic downtown square, a courthouse on the National Register of Historic Places, and a local economy anchored by government, tourism tied to Greers Ferry Lake, and healthcare. The town’s population has been essentially flat in recent years, and voters in the district approved a property tax increase for capital improvements in 2023.
On the 2024-25 Arkansas ATLAS assessments, the school’s proficiency rates in math and English language arts hovered in a moderate range across grades three through five, with no single grade showing a sharp outlier in either direction. Science results were somewhat mixed, with third graders posting a notably stronger showing than fourth graders, who were the lowest. Considered together, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades placed it above the midpoint among the three districts in Van Buren County. That is a relative strength within a small comparison set. The numbers indicate a school where a typical student is about as likely to be meeting the state’s proficient bar as not; it is not a picture of high performance, but for its county it holds a favorable position.
No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline rates, or staffing were available, so a parent who wants the full picture on school climate and daily operations would need to ask the school directly. Similarly, information on special education and English learner populations was not reported in the data we examined, which is a gap worth noting.
The district is designated as a Schools of Innovation district by the state, meaning it has flexibility to try different instructional approaches and curriculum models that depart from standard requirements. For a parent, this suggests the administration may be willing to adapt how it teaches, though what that looks like in practice at the elementary level is not detailed in the sources.
The housing market in the area is more affordable than the state and national benchmarks, consistent with a rural Ozarks location. Home values have seen modest year-over-year appreciation. For families considering a move, the trade-off is between lower entry costs and a job market that is not large or diversified, with no major industrial employers documented.
Clinton Elementary is a community school serving a high-poverty district in a stable, slow-growth town. Its academic results sit comfortably ahead of the other districts in the county, but they are not strong in an absolute sense. Parents looking at this school should be comfortable with the economic context and should ask about the specific support programs in place for students who are not yet proficient, as well as the school’s approach to the district’s innovation designation.
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