Haywood County Schools

Haywood County Schools is a small, predominantly rural Tennessee district serving 2,397 students across 6 schools—three elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school—and it is currently ranked 140th out of 141 Tennessee districts, placing it in the 1st percentile with 0 stars. The grade bands are split across the district: Anderson Early Childhood School serves PK–K, Haywood Elementary School serves 1–2, East Side Elementary School serves 3–4, Sunny Hill Intermediate School serves 5–6, Haywood Middle School serves 7–8, and Haywood High School serves 9–12.

Despite the district's overall struggles, the schools vary significantly. East Side Elementary is the clear academic standout, leading the district in math (24.4%), ELA (33.2%), and science (31.7%) proficiency while also having the lowest chronic absenteeism rate at 10.1% and the lowest per-student spending among tested schools. On the other end, Haywood High School faces the toughest challenges: 31.2% chronic absenteeism, proficiency rates as low as 6.7% in Geometry, and an 83.3% graduation rate. Anderson Early Childhood School stands out for spending—$24,874 per student, the highest in the district—though it has no test scores due to its PK–K grade span.

One of the most striking patterns is that proficiency steadily declines as students advance: math falls from 24.4% at East Side to 15.3% at Sunny Hill to 11.1% at Haywood Middle, then to 6.7–9.8% in high school math, with sharp drops even within grade pairs. On a positive note, most schools improved from the prior year—Haywood Middle boosted science from 15.3% to 21.3%, and Haywood High improved Biology I from 11.8% to 23.2%. The district's elementary and middle schools manage attendance well; the high school's absenteeism is the key barrier, making it the clearest priority for improving graduation rates.