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Parents: what's one thing you'd want the WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY administration to hear?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
520
Elementary
DISTRICT 416 · STATE 418
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CABOT SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 050375000170
WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY
1570 WILSON LOOP, CABOT, AR 72023 · (501) 743-3569 · Lonoke County
GRADES PK–04ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL520 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
16.1:1
32 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.1:1 · STATE 16.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
66%
343 students
DISTRICT 53% · STATE 70%
Community
6
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 | 50 | 10% |
| Kindergarten | 92 | 18% |
| Grade 1 | 97 | 19% |
| Grade 2 | 98 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 100 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 83 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (92) is 11% larger than its 4th grade class (83).
Student demographics
36%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 36% · 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
52.9%
AR avg 34.9% . +8.0pp since 2023
Math
70.4%
AR avg 38.9% . +9.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the ATLAS, Arkansas's statewide test, about 53 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 70 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 8 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 10 points.
ATLAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 52.9% | 70.4% |
| 2023-24 | 44.9% | 60.5% |
% 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
53.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
35.3%
based on AR schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+18.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 54% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 35% 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 18 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 WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY
WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY's state test result (53.6% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY this school | 520 | 66.0% | 53.6% |
| H.L. LUBKER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BALD KNOB | 517 | 66.3% | 34.2% |
| BEEBE EARLY CHILDHOOD BEEBE | 439 | 64.5% | N/A |
| FOUNTAIN LAKE ELEMENTARY HOT SPRINGS | 491 | 62.7% | 42.6% |
| HOLLY HARSHMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MENA | 438 | 65.5% | 38.6% |
| SKYLINE HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HARRISON | 479 | 65.8% | 44.9% |
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 WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Arkansas | In Lonoke County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 53.6% | #54 of 461 | #3 of 12 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 70.4% | #17 of 465 ▲ 23 | #1 of 12 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 52.9% | #60 of 465 ▲ 52 | #2 of 12 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 520 | #130 of 531 | #3 of 14 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.1:1 | #227 of 480 | #10 of 13 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 36.2% | #293 of 480 | #11 of 13 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 66.0% | #322 of 513 | #4 of 13 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -17.9% | #111 of 311 | #3 of 10 |
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
520
+29 (+6%) vs 2020
+36% since 2000-01, when it was 383
Student : Teacher
16.1:1
was 17.5:1
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 | 520 | 32.4 | 16.1:1 | 66% (343) |
| 2023-24 | 521 | 35.6 | 14.6:1 | 59% (308) |
| 2022-23 | 494 | 32.3 | 15.3:1 | 62% (304) |
| 2020-21 | 491 | 28 | 17.5:1 | 62% (305) |
| 2017-18 | 633 | 39.5 | 16.0:1 | 28% (177) |
| 2015-16 | 606 | 41 | 14.8:1 | 64% (387) |
| 2010-11 | 643 | 37 | 17.4:1 | 65% (416) |
| 2000-01 | 383 | 26 | 14.7:1 | 46% (176) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY.
About WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY
WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY is an elementary school with a street address in CABOT, Arkansas. It has an enrollment of 520 students in pre-K through 4. Elementary schools in Arkansas average about 418 students, which makes this school 24% bigger than average.
CABOT SCHOOL DISTRICT, which runs WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY, has 17 schools and 10,672 students.
More than half of enrollment at WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY is White: 79%. Enrollment also includes 11% multiracial and 8% Hispanic. The diversity index for WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY is 36%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
For every teacher at WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY, there are about 16.1 students; the school has 32.4 full-time-equivalent teachers. The 16.0:1 average for elementary schools in Arkansas is close to this figure. The eligibility rate for free or reduced-price meals is 66%. Across public schools in Lonoke County, the average is 52%.
On allk12's BeatsExpectations measure, WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY is among the top 10% of schools in Arkansas. Predicted: 35.3%. Actual: 53.6%.
American Community Survey estimates for Lonoke County show that median household income comes to about $72,828, roughly 22% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Lonoke County counts 25 public schools with about 13,478 students.
Measured in a straight line, CABOT MIDDLE SCHOOL NORTH is about 2.9 miles from WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. Its average proficiency rate of 53.6% is above the 45.3% average for nearby schools.
The federal government classifies WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY's location as Suburb: Large.
In 2020-21, WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY enrolled 491 students. By 2024-25, that number had grown to 520. Federal data show the ratio falling from 17.5:1 to 16.1:1.
WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY has a community page on allk12 for topics such as pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
Lonoke County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
75,272
Census ACS
Median income
$72,828
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
22%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
25
13,478 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in CABOT SCHOOL DISTRICT
- CABOT HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,170 students
- CABOT JUNIOR HIGH NORTHMiddle · 920 students
- CABOT MIDDLE SCHOOL NORTHMiddle · 828 students
- CABOT FRESHMAN ACADEMYHigh · 827 students
- CABOT MIDDLE SCHOOL SOUTHMiddle · 747 students
- CABOT JUNIOR HIGH SOUTHMiddle · 699 students
Other schools in CABOT
- CABOT HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,170 students
- CABOT JUNIOR HIGH NORTHMiddle · 920 students
- CABOT MIDDLE SCHOOL NORTHMiddle · 828 students
- CABOT FRESHMAN ACADEMYHigh · 827 students
- CABOT MIDDLE SCHOOL SOUTHMiddle · 747 students
- CABOT JUNIOR HIGH SOUTHMiddle · 699 students
Nearby schools
- CABOT MIDDLE SCHOOL NORTH2.9 mi · 828
- CABOT FRESHMAN ACADEMY3.4 mi · 827
- CABOT JUNIOR HIGH NORTH3.5 mi · 920
- CABOT LEARNING ACADEMY3.6 mi · 28
- EASTSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL3.9 mi · 550
- CABOT HIGH SCHOOL3.9 mi · 2,170
Frequently asked questions
About WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARYHow large is WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY?
WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY enrolls approximately 520 students in grades PK-04.
Is WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY an elementary, middle, or high school?
WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY is an elementary school covering grades PK-04.
How many students per teacher at WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY?
Approximately 16.1:1 students per teacher at WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY.
How diverse is WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY?
WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY reports a student body of 79% White, 8% Hispanic, 2% Black, 0% Asian, 11% Two or more.
Is WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY public or private?
WARD CENTRAL ELEMENTARY is a public K-12 school, overseen by CABOT SCHOOL DISTRICT.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.