The top reported proficiency rate is 18% in Science. The lowest is 11% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on North Little Rock Middle School
North Little Rock Middle School serves seventh and eighth graders in the North Little Rock School District, a single middle school campus for a city that spans distinct neighborhoods from the historic Argenta district to suburban Lakewood and Park Hill. The school enrolled about a thousand students, a sizable middle school population for a mid-sized Arkansas city. The student body is majority Black, with a substantial white enrollment and smaller shares of Hispanic, multiracial, and Asian students. Every student at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a universal eligibility that may reflect a districtwide community eligibility provision rather than individual household poverty, though it signals that the school serves a population with high economic need.
State assessment results from the 2024-2025 school year, using Arkansas's ATLAS test, show that proficiency rates across subjects and grade levels sit in a narrow low band. In math, roughly one in seven seventh graders scored at the proficient or above level, while eighth-grade math proficiency was about half that rate. English language arts results were similar, with both seventh and eighth graders just under one in five reaching proficiency. Science performance mirrored the pattern; seventh-grade science came in slightly higher than the other subjects, and eighth-grade science matched the ELA figure. Compared with other middle schools in Pulaski County, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quarter of the county's districts. A parent looking at these results will see a school where the large majority of students are not yet meeting state benchmarks in core subjects.
The school is part of a district that has made notable recent investments. Voters approved a millage increase in 2021 to fund a new high school building, which opened in 2023, and the district launched a career and technical education program at the high school for the 2025-2026 school year with pathways in healthcare, welding, and information technology leading to industry certifications. At the middle school level, the curriculum data available does not specify which programs or elective pathways are offered. No information on course access, staffing ratios, discipline rates, or chronic absenteeism was provided, so a parent would want to ask the school directly about the range of classes, support structures, and daily environment.
North Little Rock sits directly across the Arkansas River from Little Rock, combining a walkable downtown entertainment district in Argenta with largely car-dependent residential neighborhoods spread across many square miles. The city has Burns Park, one of the largest municipal parks in the country, and an extensive trail system along the river. Housing values in the area around the school are in the middle range relative to state and national benchmarks, and the city has seen modest population growth in recent years. Healthcare and manufacturing anchor the local economy.
For a family considering this school, the central fact is the low proficiency picture on state assessments. The school serves a high-need population, and the academic results suggest significant ground to make up in math, reading, and science. The district has been willing to pass tax increases for new facilities and has added career-focused programming at the high school, which may eventually create a clearer pathway for middle school students heading into those offerings. But a parent weighing this school should look into how the school addresses academic gaps, what intervention programs are in place, and what the daily classroom experience looks like for a typical student.
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