Haywood High School

Haywood High School serves 733 students in grades 9 through 12 in Brownsville, Tennessee, and is part of the Haywood County Schools district, which ranks in the bottom 1% of districts statewide. The school itself has a history of low rankings, though it showed slight improvement recently, moving from the 5th percentile to the 11th percentile in Tennessee. While the school has a relatively low dropout rate of 3.7%, only 83.3% of students graduate within four years, which is below the state average of 90.5%.

Academically, Haywood faces significant challenges that parents should understand. Proficiency rates on state tests are dramatically below state averages. For example, only 6.7% of students are proficient in Geometry compared to 42.3% statewide, and just 9.8% are proficient in Algebra II. Even the strongest subject, English II, has a proficiency rate of 35.5%, far below the state's 58.1%. Chronic absenteeism is a major concern, with 31.2% of students missing enough school to be considered chronically absent, compared to 18.3% statewide. While these numbers are troubling, the trend is improving, as absenteeism has dropped significantly from a rate of 54.3% just a few years ago.

Compared to nearby Ripley High School, Haywood performs better in several areas, including graduation rate (83.3% vs. 74.5%) and chronic absenteeism (31.2% vs. 37.1%). However, the gap with Crockett County High School is stark. Crockett County ranks in the 65th percentile statewide, has a 97.7% graduation rate, and only 8.2% chronic absenteeism. Notably, Haywood spends significantly more per student ($16,372) compared to Crockett County ($9,928), yet Crockett's proficiency rates are dramatically higher. This suggests that factors like attendance and community support systems play a crucial role, and that simply increasing funding isn't enough to overcome the deep structural challenges Haywood faces.