Park Magnet an Ib Pyp World Class School, Hot Springs AR

Original Research by School Decision on Park Magnet an Ib Pyp World Class School

Park Magnet an IB PYP World Class School is a pre-kindergarten through sixth grade school that is part of the Hot Springs School District in Garland County, Arkansas. Situated in the city of Hot Springs, the school sits in a resort town that draws its identity from tourism, historic bathhouses, Hot Springs National Park, and Oaklawn Park horse racing. The downtown area, with its preserved Central Avenue Historic District and Art Deco architecture, is the city’s civic and commercial core. The local economy leans heavily on hospitality, the National Park Service, and horse racing. Population growth has been slow and steady, making this a stable but not rapidly expanding place to live.

The school is a magnet school with a distinctive International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) framework, which shapes the curriculum around inquiry-based learning and international-mindedness. This program is the school’s central academic identity, and families drawn to that approach would find the school a natural fit. Because the school serves only through sixth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to evaluate, and the academic picture is limited to state testing data from the elementary and early middle school grades.

On the most recent state assessments, known as ATLAS, the school’s results show a pattern. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above declined slightly across grade levels, with the highest performance in third grade and the lowest in sixth grade. English language arts followed a similar trajectory, with the highest mark in third grade and a lower one in sixth grade. Science results were somewhat mixed, with third graders performing at a higher level than fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. When compared to other schools in Garland County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades fell above the midpoint of the county’s districts, meaning it sits in the upper half of the local field but not at the top. A parent may want to ask the school how the IB PYP approach connects to the state testing outcomes and what steps are taken in the upper grades to address the downward trend.

The student body is diverse. White students make up the largest share, followed by Hispanic, Black, and multiracial students, with a smaller Asian population. Every student at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a figure based on the school’s reported data, which places this school in a high-poverty context. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent should inquire directly about how the school serves those populations.

The school operates as a magnet within the Hot Springs School District, and the district itself did not have any recent parent-relevant changes publicly reported. Housing in the area is modestly priced relative to national benchmarks. Median home values are below the national figure but close to the Arkansas state median. Rents are lower than the national average, and the cost of rent relative to income suggests that housing is not stretched as tight as in many parts of the country. For a family already oriented toward the IB PYP model, this school represents a distinctive early-years pathway in a community where the cost of living is manageable.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 346%

School 46% · District 23% · ▲ 24 pts above district

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

Grade 446%

School 46% · District 30% · ▲ 16 pts above district

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

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 20% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 30% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 25% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 28% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 23% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 26% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Science

Grade 354%

School 54% · District 27% · ▲ 27 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 27% · ▲ 20 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 20% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 26% · ▲ 7 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

This schoolHOT SPRINGS 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.