The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in Math. The lowest is 31% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cross County Ele Tech Academy
Cross County Elementary Tech Academy is a charter school serving kindergarten through sixth grade in Cherry Valley, Arkansas, part of the Cross County School District. The school sits within a small, rural, agriculture-based town on the western edge of Crowley’s Ridge, where the economy centers on farming, particularly rice and soybeans in the lowlands and cattle on the ridge. Cherry Valley has experienced a slow population decline as agriculture has mechanized and farms have consolidated, and the community is characterized by limited commercial activity, very limited walkability, and a sparse built environment.
The student body is predominantly white, with much smaller shares of Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students, a composition that reflects the surrounding rural area. A substantial share of students qualify for free- or reduced-price meals, indicating that a large portion of families in the community have lower household incomes. The school is a charter, which means it operates with a degree of autonomy from some district regulations while remaining publicly funded.
Looking at the school’s academic performance on Arkansas’s state assessment, the picture is mixed and varies noticeably by subject and grade level. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above ranged from just under half in the fourth grade to about two-thirds in the third grade and close to three-fifths in the sixth grade, with fifth grade falling in between. The overall proficiency picture in English language arts was weaker, with fewer than a third of students reaching proficiency in grades three, four, and five, and a modest increase to just over a third in grade six. In science, the results were more variable: third graders had a strong showing, with a clear majority scoring proficient, but proficiency rates fell below half for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, settling just above a third in some grades. Compared to other districts in Cross County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint, a position that places its performance in the upper half of this small, two-district county.
Because the school serves only elementary and early middle grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and it does not yet offer the advanced coursework or career pathways that become relevant at the high school level. The district brief turned up no evidence of major recent changes in the district that would directly affect parents, such as boundary shifts or new programming.
A parent looking into this school will want to understand the community context. The educational campus itself is located outside the town center, part of a consolidated arrangement that brought together students from several nearby communities. This means the school is the only elementary option in the district for families living in and around Cherry Valley. Given that the school serves a small, largely agricultural community where the population has been declining, the academic results suggest a school that performs around the middle range for its county, with some bright spots in early math and early science and more consistent softness in reading that a parent may want to explore further with the school. The absence of information on chronic absenteeism and discipline means those dimensions are not part of this picture.
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