Spring Hill Elementary School, Hope AR

Original Research by School Decision on Spring Hill Elementary School

Spring Hill Elementary School is the only school within the Spring Hill School District, a small, rural public school system serving a pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade population just outside the city of Hope in Hempstead County, Arkansas. The district’s small size means this elementary school is the academic core of the community, feeding into a separate junior high and high school after sixth grade.

The student body is predominantly White, with a much smaller share of Hispanic students and a very small number of students who identify as two or more races or American Indian or Alaska Native. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that poverty touches many of the families this school serves. Because this is an elementary school that does not serve the high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, which is expected for this grade band.

On the most recent statewide assessments, which use Arkansas’s ATLAS exam, the results present a mixed picture. In English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above rose steadily from third grade through sixth grade, with sixth graders reaching a level that is a clear bright spot. Science scores followed a similar upward grade-level trajectory, with the highest proficiency rates also appearing in sixth grade. Math results were more uneven. While fourth and sixth graders posted proficiency rates that were the strongest in math for the school, third grade and especially fifth grade had much lower rates of proficiency. A parent may want to ask the school directly what explains the softer math performance in those grades and whether targeted support is in place.

When the school’s results are viewed in the context of the other districts in Hempstead County, its overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint among those peers. That is a relative strength within the local landscape, though it is important to note that the range of performance across the county’s districts is broad.

The school is located on a rural highway west of Hope. The town of Hope itself is a small city that has seen a modest population decline over the past several decades. Its economy rests on manufacturing, including Klipsch Audio Technologies, alongside poultry processing and other industrial work. Hope is the county seat and has a traditional downtown anchored by a restored railroad depot that also serves as an Amtrak stop. The community holds an annual Watermelon Festival each August, and the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site is a local civic anchor. The spring Hill School District sits outside the Hope city limits, so families living in the district likely experience a more rural setting than those within the town proper.

Because this is a small, single-school district, the district’s budget, staffing, and program decisions are all concentrated in one elementary building. There are no recent publicly reported changes such as construction bonds, curriculum shifts, or property-tax referenda that would signal a major shift in direction for the district. A parent looking into this school may want to contact the district office directly to understand the current program offerings, class sizes, and any enrichment or intervention services, especially in math, given the uneven assessment results. The school’s small scale could mean a close-knit environment where teachers know students well, but it also means that the menu of specialized programs available in larger districts may not be present.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 318%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 32%

▼ 8 pts below state median

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 9%

▼ 24 pts below state median

Grade 624%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 13 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 336%

School 36% · District 36%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 434%

School 34% · District 34%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 37%

▲ 4 pts above state median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 46%

▲ 14 pts above state median

Science

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 11 pts above state median

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 15 pts above state median

Grade 648%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 15 pts above state median

This schoolSPRING HILL 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-income30%Higher-income50%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income46%16 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income45%Higher-income62%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income27%Higher-income36%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income4%16 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income28%Higher-income35%7 pp gap