Joe T. Robinson Elem. School, Little Rock AR

Original Research by School Decision on Joe T. Robinson Elem. School

Joe T. Robinson Elementary School is a public school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in the Pulaski County Special School District. The school is located on Highway 10, which places it in a part of the Little Rock area that has a notably different character and cost of housing than the city as a whole. A family trying to understand this school will want to weigh the academic results against the school's broader context.

The school’s enrollment is diverse. The student body includes a mix of racial and ethnic backgrounds, with the largest groups being white students and Black students, followed by smaller shares of students who are Hispanic, Asian, or identify with two or more races. A meaningful share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a population with a range of economic circumstances.

The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade, plus a pre-kindergarten program. Because it is an elementary school, there is no high school graduation rate to report. State testing data comes from the ATLAS assessments for math, English language arts, and science. The most recent results show that the share of students scoring proficient or above was in the high twenties to mid-thirties in math across the tested grades, with slightly more variation in English language arts, where one grade level posted a higher performance rate. Science results also varied. When you compare the school's overall performance across all subjects against other schools within its district’s county, it sits in the top quartile. This is a useful benchmark, because the district itself is one of the larger and more complex in the area. The relative position suggests that while proficiency rates might not be where many families would hope them to be in absolute terms, the school is performing better than a majority of its county peers.

The housing market around the school is a distinct part of the picture. Home values in the area are notably higher than both the state average and the national average, with a typical home value that sits well above those benchmarks. Rental costs are also elevated relative to what a national audience might expect. This combination means that the school’s attendance zone covers a relatively expensive part of the metropolitan area, which often correlates with a different family demographic profile than some other parts of the Pulaski County Special School District.

The school is part of a district that recently reached a major legal milestone. The Pulaski County Special School District was declared unitary by a federal judge in 2021, officially ending decades of court supervision under the long-running Pulaski County desegregation case. This change has practical implications for how the district now manages school assignments, transfers, and equity-related programs without federal oversight. For a family considering this school, that shift is part of the background context for how the district operates.

Because the school serves only elementary grades, there are no AP courses, career pathways, or dual-credit programs to evaluate. The school’s course access, disciplinary data, and staffing ratios were not reported in the available information. A parent wanting a fuller picture of class sizes or enrichment offerings would likely need to request that directly from the school.

Joe T. Robinson Elementary offers a pre-K through fifth grade education in a relatively high-cost housing area within the Pulaski County Special School District. Its state test results, while modest in absolute terms, place it in a stronger position relative to other schools in the same county. The diversity of the student body is a characteristic, not a verdict. The school’s standing in its county comparison is the most concrete academic strength in the data. For a family that values being in this particular geography and wants an elementary program that performs around the top part of a large county cohort, this school fits. A family that needs absolute high proficiency across all grades would want to dig deeper into the results.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 33% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 436%

School 36% · District 36%

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 32% · ▲ 1 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 33% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 37% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 36% · ▲ 2 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 33% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 36% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 35% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

This schoolPULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL 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 3Lower-income15%Higher-income27%12 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income12%Higher-income32%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income44%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income15%Higher-income32%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income12%Higher-income32%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income27%Higher-income30%2 pp gap