The top reported proficiency rate is 20% in Science. The lowest is 12% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on College Hill Harmony Leadership Academy
College Hill Harmony Leadership Academy is an elementary school in Texarkana, Arkansas, serving kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Texarkana School District. The school has a straightforward academic profile and a student body with a distinct set of needs. For a parent or resident evaluating this school, the picture that emerges is of a place where state test scores are low by a wide margin, and where the broader school community is working within a context of high economic vulnerability.
The most direct evidence of academic performance comes from Arkansas’s ATLAS state assessments. In math, the share of students meeting the state’s proficiency standard was in the mid-to-low teens across grades three, four, and five, with fifth grade showing the lowest rate. In English language arts, the pattern was similar: the proficiency rate declined by grade level, and by fifth grade it fell to the low single-digit percent range. Science scores were somewhat higher, but still low, with the highest grade level in that subject reaching just under a quarter of students proficient. Compared to other districts in Miller County, the school sat in the bottom quartile on a composite index of proficiency across all tested subjects and grades. These are the core data points on student learning, and they represent a significant challenge. A parent may want to ask the school directly about its academic improvement strategies and interventions.
The student body is predominantly Black, with a white minority and small shares of Hispanic and multiracial students. Every single enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which makes this a school serving a high-poverty population. There were no data available on the share of students with individualized education programs (IEPs) or English learner status, so it is unclear to what extent special education or language support services are concentrated here. The enrollment is spread fairly evenly across kindergarten through fifth grade, with slightly larger kindergarten and second-grade groups and a tapering off in the upper elementary grades.
Texarkana itself is a mid-sized border city whose economy is anchored by the Red River Army Depot, a major employer, along with health care, manufacturing, and retail. The city’s population has been declining slowly, and housing values in the area are below state and national medians. The school is located on Forrest Street, near the downtown core of the Arkansas side. For families, this is a familiar kind of urban elementary school: a neighborhood school in a city with a mixed economic base, serving a community that faces real headwinds.
The district brief turned up little in the way of recent publicized changes or new initiatives, so there is no visible sign of a recent turnaround effort or major programmatic shift to point to. The school has not been designated as a charter or magnet, and there is no indication of a specialized theme or curriculum focus that would distinguish it from a traditional elementary program. What is present is a straightforward portrait of a school with very low test scores, a universally low-income student body, and a location in a city that is economically modest and slowly shrinking. For a family weighing options in Texarkana, the central question is what specific supports and academic strategies College Hill Harmony Leadership Academy offers to move the needle on student achievement, and whether those align with a child’s needs. The available data do not provide those details, but they do make clear the scale of the challenge.
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