Helen Tyson Middle School, Springdale AR

Original Research by School Decision on Helen Tyson Middle School

Helen Tyson Middle School serves sixth and seventh graders in Springdale, Arkansas, as part of the Springdale School District. It is a public school with a sizable enrollment for a two-grade intermediate building. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a notable share of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students and a smaller but still substantial portion of white students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a community with significant economic need.

State assessment results from the 2024-25 school year, using Arkansas’s ATLAS exam, show that proficiency rates in math, English language arts, and science are below the state midpoint across both grades. In sixth grade, about a quarter of students met the proficiency threshold in each subject. Seventh-grade math was higher, with roughly two in five students proficient, but seventh-grade ELA was closer to a quarter, and science was around a third. When compared alongside other middle schools in the county, the overall proficiency index places Helen Tyson in the bottom quartile among districts in Washington County. A parent looking at these figures may want to ask the school about specific instructional supports and how the school is working to raise achievement.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on chronic absenteeism, special education enrollment, and English learner status were not available in the provided records, so those dimensions of the student experience are not possible to characterize here. That kind of information can often be obtained directly from the school or district.

Springdale itself is a fast-growing city in northwest Arkansas, known as the Poultry Capital of the World. Major employers include Tyson Foods, George’s, Cargill, and several industrial manufacturers. The city has undergone rapid population growth in recent decades and annexed the neighboring town of Bethel Heights in 2020. Housing values in the area are above the state average and close to the national median, and rents have been relatively stable. The wider economic context shows a low unemployment rate and a median household income that is near the national figure, though for families qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, affordability is likely a tighter calculus.

Helen Tyson Middle School sits in a community with a strong industrial and agricultural economic base, a growing population, and a student body where the majority of families are managing moderate to low household incomes. Academically, the school’s test results are on the lower end when measured against other schools in Washington County. For a family weighing options, this is a school where a closer look at classroom instruction, intervention programs, and the supports available for students who are not yet at grade level would be worthwhile. The district itself did not have notable recent structural or programmatic changes reported, so the school’s current profile reflects a fairly stable operating environment.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 625%

School 25% · District 38% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 738%

School 38% · District 44% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 34% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 32% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Science

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 36% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 39% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

This schoolSPRINGDALE 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 6Lower-income20%Higher-income39%19 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income22%Higher-income48%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income23%Higher-income44%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income39%Higher-income59%19 pp gap