Sunbright School

Sunbright School is a pre-K through 12th grade alternative school in Sunbright, Tennessee, serving 464 students within the Morgan County Schools district, which ranks in the bottom 6% of Tennessee districts. Sunbright is one of two comparable PK–12 alternative schools in the district, sitting about 20 miles from its peer, Oakdale School, and it shows a decidedly mixed profile: stronger than its district in several subjects and excellent on attendance, yet concerning when it comes to high school completion and end-of-course exams.

The most pressing concern for parents is the graduation trend. Sunbright's 2024–2025 graduation rate is 85.7%, well below the district's 95.3% and the state's 90.5%, and it has declined steadily from 100% in 2017–2018. The dropout rate jumped to 7.1% this year, far above the district's 1.3% and slightly above the state's 6.7%. Interestingly, chronic absenteeism is just 6.4% — dramatically better than the state's 18.3% — meaning students are showing up to class but still not persisting to graduation. Academically, all-grade math proficiency sits at 29.7% and ELA at 35.1%, both above the district average but below Tennessee's statewide proficiency levels of 43.0% and 40.6%, respectively.

There are real bright spots in the middle grades: 8th grade math proficiency is 48.8%, well above both the district (31.4%) and state (38.3%), and 8th grade ELA also beats the state. However, high school end-of-course exams are the weakest area. Algebra II proficiency is just 5.0%, Geometry 9.1%, and Algebra I 7.7% — all far behind Oakdale School and the state. Oakdale outperforms Sunbright in nearly every high school subject, sometimes by 30 points or more. The school spends about $12,609 per student, slightly less than Oakdale's $13,276. Despite these high school struggles, Sunbright has shown meaningful improvement overall, with math proficiency more than doubling from 13.3% to 29.7% over two years.