Enrollment
303
Elementary
DISTRICT 354 · STATE 418
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 050633000357
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
1025 SCHOOL ST, FORT SMITH, AR 72908 · (479) 646-1131 · Sebastian County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL303 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
16.6:1
18 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.1:1 · STATE 16.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
72%
218 students
DISTRICT 78% · 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 | 40 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 50 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 50 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 45 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 50 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 48 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (40) is 17% smaller than its 5th grade class (48).
Student demographics
71%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 71% · 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
47.1%
AR avg 34.9% . +4.9pp since 2023
Math
60.0%
AR avg 38.9% . +11.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the ATLAS, Arkansas's statewide test, about 47 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 60 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 5 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 11 points.
ATLAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 47.1% | 60.0% |
| 2023-24 | 42.2% | 48.9% |
% 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
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of AR schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
47.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
33.1%
based on AR schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+14.7pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 48% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 33% typical for Arkansas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 15 points, placing it in Arkansas's top 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 CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's state test result (47.8% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL this school | 303 | 71.9% | 47.8% |
| BEARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FORT SMITH | 297 | 78.1% | 30.9% |
| RAYMOND F. ORR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FORT SMITH | 235 | 70.6% | 39.1% |
| BONNEVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FORT SMITH | 287 | 74.6% | 40.3% |
| BARLING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BARLING | 316 | 78.2% | 36.6% |
| LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LINCOLN | 356 | 72.2% | 32.5% |
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 CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Arkansas | In Sebastian County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 47.8% | #100 of 461 | #5 of 23 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 60.0% | #53 of 465 ▲ 61 | #3 of 23 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 47.1% | #105 of 465 ▲ 36 | #5 of 23 ▲ 3 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 303 | #389 of 531 | #16 of 23 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.6:1 | #277 of 480 | #6 of 21 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 70.7% | #10 of 480 | #3 of 21 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 71.9% | #272 of 513 | #15 of 23 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -4.7% | #267 of 311 | #17 of 18 |
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
303
-29 (-9%) vs 2020
+72% since 1990-91, when it was 176
Student : Teacher
16.6:1
was 15.8:1
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 | 303 | 18.2 | 16.6:1 | 72% (218) |
| 2023-24 | 298 | 18.2 | 16.4:1 | 68% (203) |
| 2022-23 | 310 | 19.5 | 15.9:1 | 66% (206) |
| 2020-21 | 332 | 21 | 15.8:1 | 64% (213) |
| 2017-18 | 318 | 22.6 | 14.1:1 | 36% (114) |
| 2015-16 | 296 | 19 | 15.6:1 | 62% (183) |
| 2010-11 | 223 | 14 | 15.9:1 | 71% (158) |
| 2000-01 | 172 | 12 | 14.3:1 | 74% (128) |
| 1990-91 | 176 | 8 | 22.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
About CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a public elementary school in FORT SMITH, Arkansas. The grade span is pre-K through 5, and enrollment is 303 students. Average enrollment for elementary schools in Arkansas is about 418, so this school runs 28% smaller than that.
Across its 27 schools, FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT enrolls 14,164 students. CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of those schools.
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's enrollment has no majority group, and White students are the largest at 46%. The remaining students are 19% Hispanic, 16% multiracial, 13% Black, and 5% Asian. Among people living in Sebastian County, the White share is about 68%. By the diversity index, CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL comes in at 71%.
Teachers at the school number 18.2 full-time equivalents, and the ratio is 16.6:1. Elementary schools in Arkansas average about 16.0:1, a similar figure. Roughly 72% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.
Compared with Arkansas schools that have similar shares of low-income students, CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL does better than predicted by 14.7 points. Its average proficiency rate on state tests is 47.8%; the prediction is 33.1%.
Sebastian County has these Census figures: median household income is about $57,790, roughly 23% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 11%. The public schools of Sebastian County number 44 and enroll about 20,239.
BEARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is the closest public school, about 0.4 miles away in a straight line. CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. The school's 47.8% average proficiency ranks 3rd among 9 nearby schools.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Small. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL had 332 students in 2020-21 and 303 in 2024-25, a 9% decrease.
To ask about school safety, transportation, and start times, start a discussion on this page. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Sebastian County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
128,900
Census ACS
Median income
$57,790
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
23%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
44
20,239 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT
- NORTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,231 students
- SOUTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,053 students
- RAMSEY MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 801 students
- DORA KIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 753 students
- L. A. CHAFFIN MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 753 students
- WILLIAM O. DARBY MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 711 students
Other schools in FORT SMITH
- NORTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,231 students
- SOUTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,053 students
- RAMSEY MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 801 students
- DORA KIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 753 students
- L. A. CHAFFIN MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 753 students
- WILLIAM O. DARBY MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 711 students
Nearby schools
- BEARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL0.4 mi · 297
- CARNALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL1.9 mi · 172
- ELMER H. COOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL2.0 mi · 459
- HAAS HALL ACADEMY FORT SMITH2.2 mi · 101
- RAYMOND F. ORR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL2.5 mi · 235
- Singleton Elementary School2.6 mi · 168
Frequently asked questions
About CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOLHow many students attend CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enrolls approximately 303 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serve?
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serves grades PK-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
The student-to-teacher ratio at CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is approximately 16.6:1 (18 FTE teachers).
How diverse is CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL reports a student body of 46% White, 19% Hispanic, 13% Black, 5% Asian, 16% Two or more.
Who oversees CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
CAVANAUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is overseen by FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT in Sebastian County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.