BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of AR schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
14.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
38.6%
based on AR schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-24.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 14% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 39% typical for Arkansas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual.
How this is calculated →What is ATLAS?
ATLAS is the statewide standardized test administered by Arkansas public schools.
What does "% Proficient (Level 3+4)" mean?
It is the share of students at the school who performed at grade level or above on the test, summed across the top two of four performance levels. A higher number is better.
What does 19.3% mean for English Language Arts at MILLS UNIVERSITY STUDIES HIGH SCHOOL?
It means about 19.3 percent of students tested at MILLS UNIVERSITY STUDIES HIGH SCHOOL performed at grade level or above on the ATLAS English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Arkansas that year was 34.9%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Arkansas, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Arkansas Department of Education, Arkansas Teaching, Learning & Assessment System (ATLAS). School-level Post-Appeals summary from the ADE DESE assessment files. Headline metric is the cumulative Level 3 + Level 4 rate (top 2 of 4 ATLAS performance levels).
How often is it updated?
ATLAS is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.
