The top reported proficiency rate is 13% in Math. The lowest is 5% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Southland Elem.
Southland Elementary, a regular public school in the rural Missouri Bootheel town of Cardwell, serves students from preschool through fifth grade. It is a small school, which is typical for the area, and it operates within the Southland C-9 School District. The town of Cardwell itself is a very small, agricultural community near the Arkansas border, and it has been experiencing steady population decline in recent years. No recent major changes or developments were reported for the district.
The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic minority. Every student at the school qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a reflection of the high poverty rate that characterizes the surrounding community. The school is a Title I school, a designation that comes with federal funding to support students from low-income households.
On the most recent state assessments, the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), the school’s results are concerning. In third-grade math, about one in five students scored at the proficient level or above. By fifth grade, that figure dropped to about one in twenty. In fourth-grade English language arts, the rate was similarly very low, at about one in twenty. Several other grade-level and subject-area results were suppressed for privacy reasons, often a sign of very small testing cohorts. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to the other six school districts in Dunklin County. Because the school only goes through fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report.
The school’s setting in a small, depopulating town means it is the educational hub for its youngest residents, but families will find a sparse commercial environment with limited employment or civic amenities within Cardwell itself. The school shares the town with the district’s high school, a public library, and a historic depot; larger commercial centers such as Paragould, Arkansas are nearby. The school environment and student support data, including discipline rates, staffing ratios, and chronic absenteeism, were not available in this profile. A parent may want to look into these aspects directly with the school.
This is a school where families should expect to be deeply involved in supplementing their child’s academic foundation, as the proficiency outcomes are among the lowest in the county. The school’s small size may allow for individual attention, but the academic performance data points to significant challenges. For a family weighing this option, a direct conversation with the principal about how the school is addressing these results and what support is available for students would be an important next step.
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