Judsonia Elementary School, Judsonia AR

Original Research by School Decision on Judsonia Elementary School

Judsonia Elementary School serves kindergarten through sixth grade and is part of the Riverview School District. The school is located in Judsonia, a small historic town in White County that originally grew around the strawberry trade. After a major tornado and a highway bypass redirected commerce, the town now functions primarily as a residential community, with a modest downtown centered on a historic district that includes a library, a WPA-era community building, and a park with playground and courts. Many residents commute to nearby Searcy for work. The town is seeing slow growth.

The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller Hispanic presence and a much smaller Black student population. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, placing this school in a higher-poverty context. The school has an enrollment of a size that is typical for a rural elementary school serving this grade band.

Judsonia Elementary is one of several elementary schools feeding into the district’s junior high and high school, which are located in Searcy rather than in Judsonia itself. The district recently voted to reorganize its elementary schools, a structural shift that may affect how students are assigned in the future. The district also operates a technology program that issues iPads to younger students and laptops to older students, a detail a parent may want to ask about, as classroom practice across the elementary level could vary by grade or building.

On the Arkansas ATLAS state assessments, results from the most recent testing year show a mixed picture that varies by grade and subject. In math, proficiency rates in the tested grades fall across a range that includes a notably low result in one grade and somewhat stronger results in others, but overall the school’s composite proficiency across subjects sits below the midpoint when compared with other schools within White County. In English language arts, the pattern is similar: some grades show a modest share of students reaching proficiency, while others are quite low. In science, the results tilt higher in several grades, including a result that approaches half of students proficient or above. The variability from grade to grade is substantial enough that a parent may want to look into the instructional program and any grade-level supports with the school directly. No chronic absenteeism or graduation data applies here, as this is an elementary school.

The school has a handful of key attributes that are worth noting because they structure the experience. The housing context in Judsonia is relatively affordable compared to national benchmarks, though home values have been rising. The town’s location means that for elementary years, school and community life are tied together in town, whereas a family with children approaching middle or high school will be commuting to Searcy for the remainder of their schooling within the Riverview district. A small portion of the town is served by a different district, so checking official boundary information is necessary for any given address.

For a family weighing this school, the main takeaway is that it serves a rural, lower-income community with academic results that are uneven across grades and subjects, and that the structure of the broader district means the elementary experience is geographically separate from the secondary one.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 351%

School 51% · District 45% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 425%

School 25% · District 23% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 15 pts below state median

Grade 517%

School 17% · District 21% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Grade 631%

School 31% · District 36% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 32% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 17% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 17 pts below state median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 35% · ▼ 2 pts below district

even with state median

Grade 629%

School 29% · District 24% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median

Science

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 38% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 417%

School 17% · District 18% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 29% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 34% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median

This schoolRIVERVIEW 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income36%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income56%23 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income18%Higher-income0%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income31%11 pp gap