Summary:
Bradley County Schools is a Tennessee district ranked 58th out of 141 districts with a 3-star overall rating, serving about 10,202 students across 17 schools, including 11 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, 3 high schools (one virtual), and an alternative school. The district’s clear strength is its elementary tier, headlined by Michigan Avenue Elementary School, a 5-star school ranked 92nd in the state with math proficiency of 67.3%, ELA at 68.2%, and science at 70.2%—far above district and state averages. North Lee Elementary School is an efficiency standout, ranking in the 84th percentile while spending the least among brick-and-mortar schools at $10,535 per student. Other elementary schools range from Park View and Hopewell (both solid mid-tier performers) down to Taylor Elementary, which spends the most but earned just 1 star.
The secondary picture is more uneven. Ocoee Middle School (4 stars) clearly outperforms Lake Forest Middle School in every subject—math 49.9% vs. 33.2%, ELA 41.1% vs. 28.3%—and the large gap drives the district’s middle school averages below state levels. At the high school level, Walker Valley High School (4 stars) beats Bradley Central High School in every TNReady subject, with a 7-subject average of 51.1% versus 39.8%; however, Bradley Central posts the top graduation rate in the district at 98.0% with a 1.5% dropout rate, while Walker Valley graduates 97.8%.
Notably, spending does not predict performance: Taylor Elementary School spends the most among regular schools yet has the lowest scores, while low-cost North Lee excels. Bradley County Virtual School shines in English but struggles in math, with only 13% proficiency in Integrated Math III. North Cleveland GOAL Academy, the alternative school, is a high-cost outlier at $111,909 per student, with 72.7% chronic absenteeism and an 83.3% graduation rate—reflecting the intense needs of its specialized population. Chronic absenteeism district-wide is 14.9%, below the state's 18.3%.
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