The top reported proficiency rate is 11% in Math. The lowest is 5% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Seventh Street Elem. School
Seventh Street Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in North Little Rock, Arkansas, a mid-sized city situated directly across the Arkansas River from Little Rock. The school is part of the North Little Rock School District, which has recently opened a new high school facility funded by a voter-approved millage increase and adopted a structured literacy curriculum aligned with the Science of Reading framework for its elementary grades. Seventh Street itself sits in a neighborhood near the city’s downtown core, within a community that includes the walkable Argenta Historic District with its entertainment venues and restaurants, as well as the larger automobile-dependent residential areas that spread across the city.
The student body at Seventh Street Elementary is comparatively small for an elementary serving these grades. The school is overwhelmingly composed of Black students, with small shares of Hispanic students and students identifying as two or more races, and a very small number of White students. Every single student at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a marker of the economic circumstances families in this attendance zone face. Housing values in the surrounding zip code are well below state and national medians; rents are also modest, and the local housing market has seen a decline in home values over the past year. For a family considering this school, the peer environment is one shaped by deep economic need and a predominantly Black student population.
Academically, state testing results for the 2024-2025 school year, the most recent available, show that the share of students scoring at the proficient level is low across all three tested subjects and grades. In mathematics, the percentage of students reaching the proficient threshold ranges from modest single digits in third and fourth grade to a slightly higher but still small figure in fifth grade. In English language arts, the pattern is similar: third, fourth, and fifth grade proficiency rates are all in the single digits. Science proficiency is also low, with third grade testing at the lowest end and fourth and fifth grades somewhat higher but still very modest. Compared with other districts in Pulaski County, Seventh Street Elementary’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile. The school does not serve high school grades, so no graduation rate is reported. Data on chronic absenteeism was not available for this school, and a parent may want to ask the school directly about attendance patterns.
The district itself has invested in new curricula and career pathways at the high school level, but for elementary students the most direct change is the shift to a Science of Reading-based English language arts program, which was implemented for the 2024-2025 school year—the same year these test results were collected. That means the proficiency numbers here reflect the first year of instruction under the new approach, and it may be too early to see its effect.
For a family trying to understand this school, Seventh Street Elementary is a place where the student body is almost entirely low-income, where the majority of students are Black, and where state test scores are well below the county median. The school is small, neighborhood-based, and serves children from pre-K onward. A parent considering this school may want to talk with the principal and teachers about how the new literacy curriculum is being implemented, what intervention supports are available for students who are behind, and what enrichment opportunities exist despite the budget constraints that come with a high-poverty Title I school. The surrounding neighborhood offers relatively affordable housing by regional standards, and the city provides parks, a river trail, and a public library system, though most daily errands require a car outside the compact downtown area.
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