Summary:
Zip code 37188, in the White House, Tennessee area, contains two middle schools that could hardly be more different: Tennessee Connections Academy Johnson County 4-8 in Johnson County Schools and White House Middle School in Sumner County Schools. Tennessee Connections Academy is a large virtual school serving grades 4-8 with 1,471 students, while White House Middle School is a traditional school serving grades 5-8 with 638 students.
White House Middle School is the clear standout, ranking in the 89th percentile statewide (67 of 594) with a 4-star rating. All of its proficiency rates exceed state averages: math at 63.9%, ELA at 47.3%, science at 60.8%, and social studies at 63.6%. Tennessee Connections Academy, by contrast, ranks in the bottom 13th percentile (518 of 594) with proficiency well below state averages: math at 12.2%, ELA at 16.9%, science at 23.9%, and social studies at 23.4%. White House Middle outperforms Connections Academy by 30 to 52 percentage points across core subjects. Connections Academy's only above-average metric is Algebra I at 53.8% proficiency, though this figure may reflect a reporting artifact.
Per-pupil spending also differs sharply: White House Middle spends $11,898 per student versus $5,894 at Connections Academy. Interestingly, Connections Academy has lower chronic absenteeism (10.9%) than White House Middle (14.2%), yet scores far lower academically. Both schools have seen slight declines over three years — White House Middle slipped from the 92nd to 89th percentile, while Connections Academy fell from the 18th to 13th. White House Middle's 7th-grade social studies proficiency of 77.8% is a highlight, and even its weakest subject, ELA, exceeds state averages in every grade. For families in 37188, these two schools represent opposite ends of Tennessee's performance spectrum.
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