Best Public Schools in Red Boiling Springs, TN

Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee is a small city of roughly 906 students spread across three schools that serve two different districts: Red Boiling Springs Elementary School (PK-5) and Red Boiling Springs School (6-12) in Macon County Schools, plus Hermitage Springs Elementary School (PK-8) in Clay County Schools. The standout school academically is Red Boiling Springs Elementary, which ranks in the 50th percentile statewide and exceeds both state and district averages in math and ELA, with steady improvement over three years. Its 4th grade cohort is especially strong, posting 63.3% math proficiency, while its chronic absenteeism rate of 6.5% is remarkably low.

Red Boiling Springs School is a graduation success story despite low test scores, boasting a 97.1% graduation rate compared to the 90.5% state average. However, its academic rankings are low (23rd percentile), with math proficiency at just 27.5% and ELA at 28.2%, both far below state averages. The strongest subject area is English II at 47.6% proficiency, while Algebra I is a major weakness at only 13.6%. Meanwhile, Hermitage Springs Elementary has an exceptional 3rd grade class—with 73.3% proficiency in both ELA and science—but performance drops sharply in later grades, falling to just 5.3% math proficiency by 8th grade, making it the weakest grade-level result in the city.

Across all three schools, chronic absenteeism is well below the 18.3% state rate, and spending per student ranges from $13,297 at Red Boiling Springs Elementary to $15,007 at Hermitage Springs Elementary—an inverse relationship with performance, since the lowest-spending school has the best results. The clearest takeaway is a strong elementary-to-secondary divide: the same district that produces above-average results in elementary school sees those gains fade by middle and high school, while Hermitage Springs shows that early excellence does not guarantee sustained achievement. For parents, this means Red Boiling Springs Elementary is the academic anchor of the city, Red Boiling Springs School is a reliable graduation pathway, and Hermitage Springs offers a strong foundation in the early grades that families should monitor closely as students advance.