Summary:
Zip code 37909 in Knoxville, Tennessee, is served by a single elementary school, Pond Gap Elementary School, which enrolls 354 students in grades PK through 5 as part of Knox County Schools, a mid-tier district ranked 78th out of 141 districts in the state.
Pond Gap currently ranks 899th out of 1,019 Tennessee elementary schools, placing it in the 12th percentile with a 1-star rating. While that's an improvement from last year (928th, 0 stars), it's still worse than its 2023–2024 rank of 869th. Academically, the school trails its district by wide margins: just 24.3% of students are proficient in math (vs. 45.0% in Knox County), 20.6% in ELA (vs. 44.7%), and 25.3% in science (vs. 50.9%). The school did post year-over-year gains in every subject — math improved +4.0 points, ELA +2.0, and science +4.4 — but proficiency remains very low.
One of the most concerning patterns is the 5th-grade drop-off: science proficiency falls from 30.5% in 3rd grade to just 14.0% in 5th grade, and math and ELA also hit their lowest points in 5th grade. Chronic absenteeism is another red flag, with 26.7% of students missing significant instructional time compared to 19.4% for the county and 18.3% statewide. On the spending side, the school spends $17,417 per student — a substantial figure that, combined with low test scores, suggests that money alone isn't closing the achievement gap. For parents, the key takeaway is that Pond Gap is a school facing serious challenges, though the recent upward trend in test scores offers a small sign of progress.
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