Summary:
Zip code 37404 in Chattanooga, TN is served by two public middle schools, Orchard Knob Middle School and Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence Middle, both covering grades 6-8 within Hamilton County Schools. These two schools are similar in size, with roughly 264 and 250 students respectively, but they differ sharply in attendance, spending, and academic results.
Neither school is performing well compared to state averages. Orchard Knob sits at the 3rd percentile and Chattanooga Charter at the 4th percentile in Tennessee’s 2025–26 middle school rankings, placing both in the bottom 5% of schools and earning each a 0-star rating. However, Chattanooga Charter is the stronger of the two in key subjects, especially math, where its proficiency rate of 12.5% is more than double Orchard Knob’s 5.6%. It also has a much lower chronic absenteeism rate at 22.4%, compared to Orchard Knob’s alarming 47.5%. That gap likely helps explain why Chattanooga Charter outperforms Orchard Knob in most areas, despite both schools falling far below the district and state proficiency averages of around 40% or higher.
One surprising finding is that Orchard Knob actually spends far more per student—$24,512—than Chattanooga Charter’s $18,502, yet the extra spending does not translate into better outcomes. Science proficiency is nearly identical at about 12.4–12.5%, and Orchard Knob’s math and ELA results are worse. Meanwhile, Chattanooga Charter has been trending downward, falling from the 12th percentile in 2023–24 to the 4th percentile in 2025–26, while Orchard Knob has remained consistently stuck at the bottom. Social studies is the relative bright spot for both schools, but even that subject remains less than half the state average. For parents, the data show that both schools face severe academic and attendance challenges, with chronic absenteeism and high student needs likely playing a central role in the low performance.
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