Oark Elementary School, Oark AR - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Oark Elementary School

Oark Elementary School, set deep in the Ozark Mountains of Johnson County, serves the tiny, remote unincorporated community of Oark, a place with a CDP population so small it effectively forms a single school community. The school is a central anchor of this rural area, situated along the same highway corridor as the historic Oark General Store, a community mainstay and restaurant that is one of the few commercial gathering points for miles. The surrounding landscape is the Ozark National Forest, and the local economy is driven by agriculture and outdoor recreation. The school itself operates as part of the Jasper School District, following a merger of the former Oark School District into Jasper.

Oark Elementary serves students from kindergarten through sixth grade. The student body, enrollment is small, is overwhelmingly white and nearly all students come from low-income households based on the share qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school's size means that each grade’s testing cohort is small, which can make year-to-year proficiency swings a function of a few students rather than a reliable trend, but the most recent assessment data available paints a clear picture of performance.

On Arkansas's ATLAS state assessments, proficiency rates across math, English language arts, and science are low. In math, the share of students scoring at or above proficient was modest and varied by grade, with some cohorts showing a small but notable number of students meeting the bar and others showing almost none. In English language arts, the pattern was similar, with most grade levels having a very thin share of students reaching proficiency. Science results followed the same pattern across the tested grades. When viewed against the proficiency index of the three districts in Johnson County, Oark Elementary sits in the bottom quartile. A parent looking at these numbers will see a school where most students are not yet meeting state academic benchmarks, and this is the central academic challenge of the school.

The school’s context is important to weigh alongside these results. Oark is not a growing or prosperous area; it is a remote, economically challenged community. The Jasper School District, which oversees the school, did not appear to have a published strategic plan or recent parent-relevant initiatives in publicly available records, so it is difficult to assess what specific academic improvement efforts are underway or what priorities the district has set. A parent should inquire directly with the district about targeted support for reading and math, intervention programs for struggling students, and any enrichment opportunities, given the school’s K-6 grade span.

With a student population this small and homogeneous, there is little peer diversity by race or ethnicity. The school offers a tight-knit environment where families likely know each other and the staff well. For a family already living in this remote corner of the Ozarks, Oark Elementary is the neighborhood school and the only school within a long drive. For a family considering a move to the area, the academic proficiency data is a clear soft spot that calls for direct conversations with the school about curriculum, intervention, and how the school supports students who are not yet at grade level. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report; students in the district continue on to Oark High School, which is on the same campus.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 31% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 40% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 32% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 1 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 30%

School 0% · District 27% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 38% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 27% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 33% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median

Science

Grade 310%

School 10% · District 36% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 36% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 34% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 33% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median

This schoolJASPER 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.