Summary:
Zip code 38485, serving the Waynesboro, Tennessee area, contains four public schools in the Wayne County Schools district, spanning grades PK-12 with a total enrollment of 993 students. The district ranks in the 21st percentile statewide with a 1-star rating, but performance varies greatly from school to school.
The clear standout is Wayne County High School, the only 3-star school in the district, ranking in the 56th percentile statewide. It boasts a 94.4% graduation rate, a low 8.2% chronic absenteeism rate, and strong results in Biology I and English II, both exceeding state averages. However, its math scores remain well below state levels, and its overall ranking has slipped over the past three years. In contrast, Wayne County Virtual School posts the district's highest graduation rate (95.2%) but dramatically lower academic proficiency — just 5.3% in ELA and 5.6% in science — while spending only $5,276 per student, less than half of what traditional schools spend. The most concerning traditional school is Waynesboro Middle School, which has the lowest math and ELA proficiency rates in the district (13.2% and 17.8%, respectively) and the highest chronic absenteeism at 19.0%, above the state average. Its 8th-grade math proficiency falls to just 8.7%, suggesting students fall further behind as they progress.
Waynesboro Elementary School shows some grade-level improvement, with 4th-grade math proficiency (32.4%) more than double its 3rd-grade rate, but it still sits in the 18th percentile statewide. Across all schools, chronic absenteeism is an issue at the middle school level, while the high school outperforms its district peers in attendance and graduation. The district's low overall rating masks the high school's relative success, but all schools share a common challenge: math proficiency remains well below state averages, and the virtual school's low-cost model delivers very low academic results despite high graduation rates.
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