Enrollment
305
Elementary
DISTRICT 357 · STATE 418
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 051185000906
CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
9906 JACKSONVILLE CATO ROAD, SHERWOOD, AR 72120 · (501) 833-1160 · Pulaski County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY41-RURALTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL305 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 33% of Arkansas public elementary schools
- C+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Arkansas public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
17.5:1
17 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.0:1 · STATE 16.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
61%
185 students
DISTRICT 55% · STATE 70%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 20 | 7% |
| Kindergarten | 38 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 48 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 43 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 47 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 55 | 18% |
| Grade 5 | 54 | 18% |
This year's kindergarten class (38) is 30% smaller than its 5th grade class (54).
Student demographics
66%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 66% · STATE 61% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
ATLAS 2024-25 . % Proficient (Level 3+4)English Language Arts
36.7%
AR avg 34.9% . +1.6pp since 2023
Math
26.7%
AR avg 38.9% . -4.4pp since 2023
What this means: On the ATLAS, Arkansas's statewide test, about 37 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 27 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Arkansas schools, those numbers are about 35 and 39. Reading and writing scores are up about 2 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 4 points.
ATLAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 36.7% | 26.7% |
| 2023-24 | 35.1% | 31.1% |
% Proficient (Level 3+4), all students and all tested grades.
Source: ATLAS. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
33.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
37.3%
based on AR schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.1pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 33% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 37% typical for Arkansas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Arkansas's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's state test result (33.2% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL this school | 305 | 60.7% | 33.2% |
| LONOKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LONOKE | 311 | 61.4% | 34.7% |
| MONTICELLO INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL MONTICELLO | 361 | 66.5% | 37.7% |
| NETTLETON STEAM INTERMEDIATE JONESBORO | 313 | 67.4% | 26.1% |
| ALLBRITTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HAMBURG | 293 | 64.2% | 29.2% |
| LONOKE PRIMARY SCHOOL LONOKE | 359 | 64.9% | N/A |
Matched among Arkansas elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Arkansas | In Pulaski County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 33.2% | #264 of 461 | #17 of 63 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 26.7% | #331 of 465 ▼ 56 | #23 of 63 ▼ 5 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 36.7% | #220 of 465 ▲ 3 | #16 of 63 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 305 | #388 of 531 | #50 of 72 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.5:1 | #333 of 480 | #46 of 65 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 65.7% | #55 of 480 | #9 of 65 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 60.7% | #358 of 513 | #49 of 69 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +5.5% | #97 of 138 | #12 of 14 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
305
+2 (+1%) vs 2020
-53% since 1990-91, when it was 655
Student : Teacher
17.5:1
was 16.8:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 305 | 17.5 | 17.5:1 | 61% (185) |
| 2023-24 | 323 | 19.3 | 16.7:1 | 99% (319) |
| 2022-23 | 296 | 19.3 | 15.3:1 | 97% (286) |
| 2020-21 | 303 | 18 | 16.8:1 | 100% (303) |
| 2017-18 | 289 | 22.5 | 12.8:1 | 34% (97) |
| 2015-16 | 373 | 23 | 16.2:1 | 79% (295) |
| 2010-11 | 323 | 22 | 14.7:1 | 69% (223) |
| 2000-01 | 511 | 28 | 18.3:1 | 46% (236) |
| 1990-91 | 655 | 31 | 21.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
About CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a small elementary school with its address in SHERWOOD, Arkansas. The grade span is pre-K through 5, and enrollment is 305 students. An average school in this group (elementary schools in Arkansas) has about 418 students.
PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT (26 schools, 12,586 students) runs CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
By race and ethnicity, the largest group at CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is White (47%). Other groups include 32% Black, 12% Hispanic, and 8% multiracial. County-wide, about 49% of residents are White. By the diversity index, CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL comes in at 66%.
Teacher staffing is 17.5 full-time equivalents, or about 17.5 students per teacher. The 16.0:1 average for elementary schools in Arkansas is lower than this school's figure. Eligibility for subsidized school meals is 61%. On average, public schools in Pulaski County report 71%.
CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is graded C by allk12, scoring above 33% of Arkansas public elementary schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Test results at CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL are 4.1 points below what its free or reduced-price lunch share predicts (33.2% actual, 37.3% predicted).
Pulaski County has about 399,818 residents, and median household income is about $62,873, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 38% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 13%. Federal data list 133 public schools in Pulaski County, with a combined enrollment of about 64,124.
The nearest public school is SYLVAN HILLS MIDDLE SCHOOL, at about 0.2 miles. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. On state test proficiency, CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks 2nd in a group of 9 nearby schools.
Locale data from NCES put CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in rural territory close to an urban area (Rural: Fringe).
The student count changed little between 2020-21 (303) and 2024-25 (305).
Posts about school safety, transportation, and start times are welcome on this page. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Pulaski County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
399,818
Census ACS
Median income
$62,873
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
38%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
13%
Below federal line
Schools in county
133
64,124 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
- SYLVAN HILLS HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,120 students
- JOE T. ROBINSON HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,030 students
- MAUMELLE HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 869 students
- SYLVAN HILLS MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 772 students
- SYLVAN HILLS JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 721 students
- MILLS UNIVERSITY STUDIES HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 612 students
Other schools in SHERWOOD
- SYLVAN HILLS HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,120 students
- SYLVAN HILLS MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 772 students
- SYLVAN HILLS JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 721 students
- LISA ACADEMY NORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLElementary · 654 students
- WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLElementary · 586 students
- SYLVAN HILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLElementary · 516 students
Nearby schools
- SYLVAN HILLS MIDDLE SCHOOL0.2 mi · 772
- SYLVAN HILLS JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL2.4 mi · 721
- SYLVAN HILLS HIGH SCHOOL2.5 mi · 1,120
- SYLVAN HILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL2.6 mi · 516
- OAKBROOKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL3.4 mi · 408
- BOBBY G LESTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL3.6 mi · 421
Frequently asked questions
About CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHow many students attend CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enrolls approximately 305 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serve?
CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
Approximately 17.5:1 students per teacher at CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
How diverse is CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL reports a student body of 47% White, 12% Hispanic, 32% Black, 1% Asian, 8% Two or more.
Is CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL public or private?
CATO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a public K-12 school, overseen by PULASKI COUNTY SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.