Want to know the real demographics of every public school in/near the LRSD footprint? Don’t listen to “them.” Don’t listen to “us.” Go first person. Read it yourself, straight from adedatabeta.arkansas.gov.
For context, according to the U.S. Census, the City of Little Rock is:
- 47% White
- 6% Hispanic
- 42% Black
- 5% Other
- 18% Poverty Index
Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL)
Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL), the longtime education euphemism for poverty, no longer means what it did. For example, beginning in 2014-15, schools with 40% or more identified Free Lunch students in the previous school year could qualify for 100% free breakfast and lunch through the federal Community Eligibility Provision. Identified students are those certified for free meals without the use of household applications (e.g. those directly certified through SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
How has this impacted FRL percentages? In 2014-15, only two schools in all of Arkansas had 100% FRL students. In 2015-16, there were 153, led by LRSD with 31, including Forest Heights STEM Academy. The year before Community Eligibility Provision was available, LRSD was 63% FRL, 18 points lower than 2015-16.
So, 100% FRL simply means all students, no matter their income, are receiving free breakfast and lunch.
LRSD Free and Reduced Lunch Percentages
- 2015-16: 81% (After Community Eligibility Provision)
- 2014-15: 75% (After Community Eligibility Provision)
- 2013-14: 63%
- 2012-13: 72%
- 2011-12: 71%
- 2010-11: 70%
- 2009-10: 70%
- 2008-09: 65%
- 2007-08: 64%
- 2006-07: 62%
- 2005-06: 62%
- 2004-05: 59%
High Schools (9-12)
| School | Enrollment | SPED* | FRL** | White | Hispanic | Black | Other | Minority |
| Central (LRSD) | 2,485 | 5% | 47% | 29% | 4% | 59% | 8% | 71% |
| eStem (Charter) | 499 | 6% | 30% | 31% | 5% | 46% | 8% | 69% |
| Fair (LRSD) | 910 | 14% | 100% | 4% | 7% | 88% | 1% | 96% |
| Hall (LRSD) | 1,158 | 14% | 100% | 5% | 24% | 69% | 2% | 95% |
| LISA (Charter) | 341 | 6% | 40% | 26% | 13% | 47% | 13% | 74% |
| McClellan (LRSD) | 819 | 15% | 100% | 3% | 3% | 88% | 9% | 97% |
| Parkview (LRSD) | 1,086 | 5% | 55% | 23% | 16% | 57% | 4% | 65% |
| Premier (Charter) | 116 | 16% | 63% | 12% | 3% | 84% | 0% | 88% |
| SIA Tech (Charter) | 166 | 2% | 81% | 7% | 1% | 90% | 2% | 93% |
*Special Education Percentage
**Free and Reduced Lunch Percentage
If, as critics charge, open-enrollment public charters are “re-segregating” LRSD, then Central (expansive, gerrymandered attendance zone through affluent Little Rock) and Parkview (no attendance zone), and their selective magnet admissions, are having a far greater segregative impact.
Middle Schools (6-8)
| School | Enrollment | SPED | FRL | White | Hispanic | Black | Other | Minority |
| Cloverdale (LRSD) | 592 | 18% | 100% | 2% | 27% | 70% | 1% | 98% |
| Covenant Keepers (Charter) | 171 | NA | NA | 1% | 42% | 57% | 0% | 99% |
| Dunbar (LRSD) | 688 | 12% | 100% | 6% | 9% | 83% | 1% | 94% |
| eStem (Charter) | 473 | 10% | 30% | 44% | 7% | 44% | 6% | 56% |
| Henderson (LRSD) | 772 | 16% | 100% | 6% | 10% | 82% | 2% | 94% |
| LISA (Charter) | 484 | 4% | 40% | 23% | 15% | 37% | 25% | 77% |
| Little Rock Preparatory (Charter, 6-8) | 118 | 6% | 100% | 2% | 15% | 83% | 0% | 98% |
| Mabelvale (LRSD) | 638 | 13% | 100% | 5% | 16% | 78% | 2% | 95% |
| Mann (LRSD) | 815 | 10% | 70% | 17% | 16% | 62% | 5% | 83% |
| Pulaski Heights (LRSD) | 807 | 11% | 53% | 39% | 3% | 55% | 4% | 61% |
| Quest (Charter) | 231 | 11% | 12% | 63% | 7% | 19% | 10% | 37% |
The highest public middle school White (63%), Hispanic (42%), Black (90%) and Other (25%) percentages all belong to open-enrollment public charters. Covenant Keepers charter has the highest minority percentage (99%) of any public middle school, followed by LRSD Cloverdale (98%) and Little Rock Prep charter (98%).
K-8 Schools
| School | Enrollment | SPED | FRL | White | Hispanic | Black | Other | Minority |
| Exalt (K-8) | 233 | 1% | 100% | 1% | 44% | 55% | 0% | 99% |
| Forest Heights STEM (LRSD) | 710 | 8% | 100% | 35% | 7% | 53% | 5% | 65% |
| Rockbridge Montessori (Charter) | 111 | NA | NA | 43% | 2% | 50% | 5% | 57% |
Forest Heights would have been designated in Academic Distress had it not been reconstituted, in a split board vote, as a K-8 STEM Academy for the 2014-15 school year. Exalt charter has the second lowest percentage of White students (1%), second highest percentage of Hispanic students (44%), and second highest percentage of Minority students (99%) of any public school in the LRSD footprint.
Elementary Schools (K-5)
| School | Enrollment | SPED | FRL | White | Hispanic | Black | Other | Minority |
| Bale (LRSD) | 336 | 18% | 100% | 11% | 14% | 71% | 4% | 82% |
| Baseline (LRSD) | 302 | 14% | 100% | 5% | 56% | 28% | 2% | 95% |
| Booker (LRSD) | 459 | 14% | 100% | 15% | 17% | 63% | 5% | 85% |
| Brady (LRSD) | 407 | 13% | 100% | 6% | 13% | 78% | 2% | 94% |
| Carver (LRSD) | 274 | 16% | 100% | 12% | 16% | 68% | 4% | 88% |
| Chicot (LRSD) | 558 | 9% | 100% | 3% | 35% | 61% | 1% | 97% |
| Dodd (LRSD) | 305 | 9% | 100% | 8% | 37% | 55% | 0% | 92% |
| eStem (Charter) | 480 | 6% | 35% | 45% | 6% | 44% | 5% | 65% |
| Forest Park (LRSD) | 400 | 7% | 22% | 73% | 3% | 16% | 8% | 27% |
| Franklin (LRSD) | 294 | 19% | 100% | 4% | 5% | 89% | 1% | 96% |
| Fulbright (LRSD) | 558 | 15% | 47% | 40% | 7% | 44% | 9% | 60% |
| Geyer Springs (LRSD, 1-5) | 167 | 6% | 100% | 7% | 14% | 78% | 1% | 93% |
| Gibbs (LRSD) | 282 | 8% | 51% | 30% | 5% | 61% | 4% | 70% |
| Jefferson (LRSD) | 343 | 7% | 29% | 73% | 2% | 22% | 3% | 27% |
| King (LRSD) | 406 | 14% | 100% | 3% | 2% | 93% | 2% | 97% |
| Little Rock Preparatory (Charter, K-4) | 118 | 5% | 100% | 0% | 9% | 91% | 0% | 100% |
| Mabelvale (LRSD) | 527 | 11% | 100% | 5% | 25% | 68% | 2% | 95% |
| McDermott (LRSD) | 341 | 15% | 100% | 8% | 11% | 78% | 2% | 92% |
| Meadowcliff (LRSD) | 330 | 11% | 100% | 7% | 19% | 74% | 93% | 93% |
| Otter Creek (LRSD) | 543 | 11% | 100% | 11% | 21% | 67% | 2% | 89% |
| Pulaski Heights (LRSD) | 320 | 12% | 54% | 48% | 5% | 42% | 5% | 52% |
| Roberts (LRSD) | 892 | 10% | 27% | 57% | 4% | 25% | 14% | 43% |
| Rockefeller (LRSD) | 260 | 17% | 100% | 3% | 5% | 90% | 2% | 97% |
| Romine (LRSD) | 276 | 18% | 100% | 3% | 12% | 84% | 1% | 97% |
| Stephens (LRSD) | 329 | 16% | 100% | 2% | 2% | 94% | 2% | 98% |
| Terry (LRSD) | 407 | 13% | 100% | 14% | 17% | 64% | 6% | 86% |
| Wakefield (LRSD) | 550 | 7% | 100% | 2% | 35% | 63% | 1% | 98% |
| Washington (LRSD) | 314 | 24% | 100% | 3% | 2% | 95% | 1% | 97% |
| Watson (LRSD, 3-5) | 415 | 11% | 100% | 4% | 35% | 59% | 2% | 96% |
| Western Hills (LRSD) | 238 | 18% | 100% | 10% | 16% | 71% | 3% | 90% |
| Williams (LRSD) | 438 | 8% | 57% | 24% | 8% | 56% | 12% | 76% |
| Wilson (LRSD) | 307 | 22% | 100% | 4% | 27% | 66% | 3% | 96% |
The highest percentage of Hispanic students of any public school in the LRSD footprint is Baseline (56%), followed by Exalt charter (44%) and Covenant Keepers charter (42%). LRSD’s 100-year old Forest Park and Jefferson have the highest percentage of White students (73%) of any public school in the footprint, ten points higher than what critics deride as “White Flight” Quest charter and 16 points over Roberts, also in West Little Rock.
Fast Facts
- The public school that most reflects the demographics of the City of Little Rock? LRSD Pulaski Heights Elementary
- The most Black/White balanced public school in the footprint? eStem Public Charter Schools Middle
- The most multi-culturally diverse public school in the footprint? LISA Academy Middle
- The most segregated public school in the footprint (Black)? LRSD Washington Elementary
- The most segregated public school in the footprint (White)? LRSD Forest Park and Jefferson Elementaries
- The most segregated public school in the footprint (Hispanic)? LRSD Baseline Elementary
- The only public school in the footprint with zero White students and 100% Minority? Little Rock Prep charter
- Twenty LRSD schools are 70% or more one race: ten 70-79%, six 80-89%, and four 90-100%
Epilogue
And since so many are now citing “Baker’s data,” they are attached, with our footnotes.