Summary:
Bradford Special School District is a small, two-school district in rural Tennessee serving approximately 630 students in grades PK–12, with Bradford High School (grades 6–12) and Bradford Elementary School (grades PK–6) sharing a single campus. The district ranks 38th of 141 Tennessee districts (4 stars), driven largely by the high school’s strong performance.
Bradford High School is the clear standout, improving from the 60th to 75th percentile over two years to rank 99th of 400 high schools statewide. It outperforms state averages in grade-level math (51% vs. 43% all-grades), US History (68.4% vs. 42.4%), and English II (66.7% vs. 58.1%), with particularly strong 6th–8th grade math results. Even where all-grades Algebra I and II trail state averages, grade-specific results (9th grade Algebra I: 28.6% vs. 26.1%; 11th grade Algebra II: 32.4% vs. 29.3%) show students are on par. In contrast, Bradford Elementary School has slipped to the 46th percentile (2 stars). It posts solid ELA scores (46.8% vs. 40.6% statewide, with 5th grade ELA at 51.7%), but math proficiency declines from above-average in 3rd grade (46.9% vs. 42.6%) to well below average in 5th grade (33.9% vs. 47.4%). The biggest concern is 3rd grade science at just 25% proficiency versus 44.3% statewide.
Attendance is a district-wide strength: chronic absenteeism is only 2.5% versus 18.3% statewide. Yet spending tells an interesting story — the elementary school spends about 22% more per student ($15,053 vs. $12,366 at the high school) while delivering lower test results. With no standalone middle school, the high school captures all secondary grades, making its 6–12 success even more notable. Closing the elementary math and science gaps — especially by 5th grade — would lift this already solid district considerably.
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