The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in Science. The lowest is 12% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Whitehaven Elementary
Whitehaven Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in Memphis, within the Memphis-Shelby County Schools district. The school is not a charter or magnet school. Enrollment is several hundred students, placing it at a modest size for an elementary school serving that grade span.
The student body is overwhelmingly Black, accounting for nearly all enrolled students, with very small shares of children who are two or more races, Hispanic, or white. The school does not report data on students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are identified as English learners, so a parent looking for that information would need to ask the school directly.
State testing results from the most recent year show that about three in ten students met the proficiency benchmark in math and in English language arts. In science, the rate was slightly higher, just over a third of students. These figures place the school in the bottom quartile on an overall proficiency index when compared with other districts across Shelby County; the countywide median among districts is substantially higher. The school did not report a social studies proficiency rate for a recent year, which makes a full picture across all tested subjects incomplete. Participation rates on the state assessments were very high, meaning nearly every enrolled student took the tests.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Chronic absenteeism data is also missing from the available record, so it is not possible to gauge how consistently students attend. A parent may want to follow up with the school about attendance patterns and special education or English learner supports, since those details were not part of the data set.
Whitehaven Elementary sits in the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis, on Elvis Presley Boulevard. The area's housing market shows home values that are notably lower than the statewide average, and rents are modest as well. The broader Memphis metro offers an array of civic and cultural amenities. Tom Lee Park along the Mississippi River completed a major renovation recently, Shelby Farms Park is one of the largest urban parks in the country, and Overton Park houses the Memphis Zoo. The National Civil Rights Museum, Graceland, Sun Studio, and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music anchor the city's cultural identity. Beale Street is a historic entertainment district. The Memphis Area Transit Authority provides public bus service across the city.
The district, Memphis-Shelby County Schools, has been navigating changes in recent years. Public reports indicate the district has pursued a long-range facilities plan referred to as Reimagining 901, which includes school closures and consolidations. A property tax referendum to fund district operations and capital needs was also publicly discussed in recent years. A parent considering Whitehaven Elementary should confirm whether the school's status has been affected by any district-level consolidation decisions and what the current plans are for the building and attendance zone.
This is a school where most students are not meeting state proficiency benchmarks in core subjects, and the academic results are low relative to other schools in the same county. For a parent whose priority is a school with strong test scores, this would not be an obvious fit. For a family already in the Whitehaven neighborhood who values a neighborhood school setting and wants to engage directly with the school's staff on academic support and programming, it may be worth a visit. The available data does not include information on course offerings, enrichment programs, or staffing ratios, so those are open questions a family would want to answer in person.
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