Summary:
The 72476 zip code area is home to two schools - Walnut Ridge Elementary School and Walnut Ridge High School, both part of the Lawrence County School District. While the high school is performing reasonably well, the elementary school appears to be struggling, with lower proficiency rates across core subjects compared to state averages.
Walnut Ridge High School stands out as the stronger performer, with a 3-star rating from SchoolDigger and generally higher test scores than the elementary school. In contrast, Walnut Ridge Elementary School has a 2-star rating and lags behind state averages in English Language Arts, Math, and Science proficiency. This performance gap between the two schools suggests potential issues in the earlier stages of the educational pipeline that need to be addressed.
Other notable differences include the elementary school's higher free/reduced lunch rate of 57.59%, compared to 45.02% at the high school, indicating a greater concentration of economically disadvantaged students. Additionally, the high school has a lower student-teacher ratio of 8.5 students per teacher, compared to 14.7 at the elementary school, which may contribute to its stronger academic performance. Further investigation into the root causes of the performance gap could help identify targeted interventions and support to improve outcomes at the elementary school level.
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