Summary:
ZIP code 37324 is home to just one elementary school, Decherd Elementary School, which serves grades PK–5 in Decherd, Tennessee, as part of Franklin County Schools.
Decherd Elementary School enrolls 436 students and currently holds a 1-star rating, ranking in the bottom 11% of Tennessee elementary schools for two consecutive years. Proficiency rates are far below both district and state averages in every subject. In the most recent school year, only 15.7% of students were proficient in math, compared to 29.2% for the district and 43.0% statewide; ELA proficiency was 21.7% versus 30.7% and 40.6%; and science proficiency was 28.3% versus 41.1% and 46.9%. The most alarming data point is 4th-grade math, where just 7.5% of students are proficient, a staggering gap of nearly 42 points behind the state average. Chronic absenteeism is also a major concern, with 21.2% of students chronically absent, exceeding both the district's 15.1% and the state's 18.3%.
There is one relative positive: science proficiency improved substantially by 7.7 percentage points year-over-year, though it still lags the state by about 18.6 points. The school spends $12,468 per student, but this spending has not translated into meaningful academic gains, as the school has plateaued at the 11th percentile in statewide rankings. Without available data on free/reduced lunch or student-teacher ratios, the full picture is unclear, but the available evidence shows that Decherd Elementary faces systemic challenges in math, reading, and attendance that require urgent attention. For parents considering this area, it is important to know that while the school is the only elementary option in the ZIP code, its academic performance is critically low across all grade levels and subjects.
Thank you for your feedback!