SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL

SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL operates as a high-enrollment middle school in SEARCY, Arkansas, overseen by SEARCY SCHOOL DISTRICT. Current enrollment sits at 913 students spanning grades 4 through 6. That puts it 97% bigger than the typical public school in Arkansas, which averages around 464 students.

SEARCY SCHOOL DISTRICT comprises 6 schools with combined enrollment of 3,973 students; SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL is among them.

Looking at the student body, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL records that the largest single group is White, at 67% of enrollment. The remainder is composed of 11% Black, 10% multiracial, 9% Hispanic, 2% Asian. By comparison, White County as a whole is about 87% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, On paper, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL has 50 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 18.4:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.9:1, putting SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL higher than the state norm the norm. Around 52% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 39.5% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 49.4%.

In the surrounding community, the surrounding county (White County) logs that median household income runs about $55,249, roughly 20% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 14%. Across White County's 27 public schools (combined enrollment of about 12,342 students), SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: AHLF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, around 0.6 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL. On composite proficiency, SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL comes 2nd of 9 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 35.4%.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 8%: 990 students in 2018 compared to 913 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 16.4:1 in 2018 to 18.4:1 today.

On this page, members of the SOUTHWEST MIDDLE SCHOOL community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.