Summary:
Zip code 38034 contains exactly one school—Friendship Elementary School—a PK–5 elementary school in Friendship, Tennessee, serving 117 students within Crockett County Schools. It sits inside a district ranked 55th out of 141 Tennessee districts (61st percentile, 3 stars), yet the school itself ranks 901st out of 1,019 Tennessee schools (12th percentile). That contrast is striking: the district is above average, while the school is near the bottom of state rankings. The school's state percentile has declined sharply, from 26th in 2023–2024 to 25th in 2024–2025 and now 12th in 2025–2026, signaling a clear downward trend.
Academically, Friendship Elementary lags far behind both its district and the state on the 2025–2026 TNReady assessments. Math proficiency is 20.8%, compared with 45.9% for the district and 43.0% for the state; ELA is 18.8% versus 34.2% and 40.6%; and science is 27.1% versus 47.5% and 46.9%. Year-over-year, math fell from 31.3% to 20.8% and ELA from 31.3% to 18.8%, while science improved slightly from 25.0% to 27.1%. Grade-level patterns show 3rd grade as a relative bright spot, but 4th-grade math proficiency sits at just 10.5% and 5th-grade ELA at 13.3%, suggesting gaps that widen as students move through the grades.
Attendance may be part of the problem: the school's chronic absenteeism rate is 18.9%, nearly double the district's 9.8% and slightly above the state average of 18.3%—equivalent to roughly 22 students in a school of 117. Per-student spending is $16,527, a high figure typical of small rural schools where fixed costs are spread over fewer students, yet it has not produced strong results. For parents, the most urgent concerns are 4th-grade math, 5th-grade ELA, overall attendance, and reversing the downward proficiency trend. Because the school is so small, targeted interventions and close monitoring of individual student progress could make a meaningful difference.
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