Schools in Zip Code 37403

Zip code 37403 contains three schools in the Hamilton County Schools district, which ranks 81st out of 141 Tennessee districts: Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences Upper (grades 6–12, 741 students), Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences Lower (grades K–5, 388 students), and Tommie F. Brown Academy School (grades PK–5, 299 students). There are no standalone middle or alternative schools, so CSAS Upper is the only secondary option.

The two Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences campuses — sharing an East 3rd Street address — are the academic anchor of the area. CSAS Upper ranks 64th out of 400 high schools statewide (84th percentile, 4 stars) with a 99% graduation rate, a 1% dropout rate, and chronic absenteeism of just 9.1%. Proficiency exceeds state averages in every subject, including English II (87.4% vs. 58.1% statewide) and Algebra II (68.5% vs. 37.3%). CSAS Lower ranks 125th out of 1,019 elementary schools (88th percentile, 4 stars), with all-grades proficiency of 58.8% in math, 62.4% in ELA, and 69.2% in science — all well above district and state averages — and chronic absenteeism of just 6.2%.

By contrast, Tommie F. Brown Academy is critically struggling. It ranks 987th out of 1,019 elementary schools (3rd percentile, 0 stars), with math proficiency of just 14.4%, ELA at 15.4%, and science at 13.7% — roughly one-quarter to one-third of state averages. Compared directly to CSAS Lower, the gap is enormous: CSAS Lower outperforms Tommie F. Brown by 44.4 points in math, 47.0 points in ELA, and 55.5 points in science. Notably, Tommie F. Brown is the highest-spending school in the zip code at $22,013 per student — roughly 34% more than CSAS Lower and 36% more than CSAS Upper — yet produces the lowest outcomes. Its chronic absenteeism of 15.7% is actually below district and state averages, so absenteeism does not explain the low performance. This zip code is a microcosm of educational inequality: a high-performing K–12 pathway and one of Tennessee's lowest-performing elementary schools sit within the same few square miles and the same district.