HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, a compact elementary school in FORT SMITH, Arkansas, run under FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT, works with 299 students, covering grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 28% below the typical public school in Arkansas, which averages around 418 students.

Within FORT SMITH SCHOOL DISTRICT, which oversees 27 schools and 14,164 students, HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL lists that 63% of the student body identifies as Hispanic. Beyond that, the school reports 17% White, 10% Black, 10% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 16% Hispanic, putting the school's mix considerably more Hispanic than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 16 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 18.9:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 16.0:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Around 92% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Sebastian County (around 65%), the school's rate is north of typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 25.1%, the actual is 23.8%, a residual of -1.3 points.

In the surrounding community, census data for Sebastian County shows median household earnings sit near $57,790, 23% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of 44 public schools in Sebastian County (combined enrollment of about 20,239 students).

The closest other public school is FUTURE SCHOOL OF FORT SMITH, roughly 0.5 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL at 2nd of 7; the average score across the group is 19.4%.

The campus sits in an urban setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at HOWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has fell 20%, going from 376 students in 2018 to 299 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share ticked down from 23% to 10%. The student-to-teacher ratio grew from 15.9:1 in 2018 to 18.9:1 today.

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