The top reported proficiency rate is 34% in Social studies. The lowest is 25% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Tazewell-new Tazewell Elementary
Tazewell-New Tazewell Elementary serves students from kindergarten through fourth grade in the Claiborne County school district. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet school. The student body is overwhelmingly White, with a small number of Hispanic students and students of two or more races, and a tiny number of American Indian or Alaska Native students. The school is located in New Tazewell, a small manufacturing town in Claiborne County that markets itself as relaxed and lacking a local property tax.
This elementary school draws its students from New Tazewell and the surrounding area. The town’s economy is built around manufacturing, with employers ranging from furniture to medical products to trailer manufacturing. The town has seen a modest population decline in recent decades, and recent development has focused on infrastructure like the municipal airport rather than housing. The town sits near Norris Lake and is an easy drive to Knoxville, but the area is generally rural and car-dependent. A satellite campus of Walters State Community College is located in New Tazewell, offering some higher education access within the town itself.
The district made a major change in 2021, consolidating Cumberland Gap High School into Claiborne County High School, so all high school students in the county now attend a single school at the former Cumberland Gap campus in Harrogate. For elementary families, this means that the feeder pattern for their children will eventually lead to one high school. The district also adopted a new English language arts curriculum for the 2023-2024 school year and expanded career and technical education pathways in healthcare and advanced manufacturing.
State testing results from the 2024-2025 school year are available for this elementary school across tested grades. In math, just over a quarter of students scored at the proficient level or above. In English language arts, slightly more than a quarter of students met that benchmark. Science results were higher, with about a third of students reaching proficiency. Social studies results are from an older school year and used a different test, so they are not directly comparable. These proficiency figures are lower than what many families would hope for, and a parent may want to ask the school about its approach to closing these gaps and how it supports students who are not yet meeting grade-level standards.
Participation rates for the state tests were high, meaning the results reflect nearly all enrolled students in tested grades. The school serves about the size of a mid-sized elementary for its grade span, with kindergarten through fourth grade each having a roughly equal number of students. Enrollment data for free or reduced-price lunch, special education, and English learner status were not available, so it is difficult to assess the level of economic diversity or the share of students receiving additional academic support.
The school sits in a housing market where home values are somewhat below the national median but still represent a meaningful investment for most families. The town’s lack of a property tax is a notable feature that could affect the overall cost of homeownership relative to other parts of the county or region.
This is a school where academic outcomes, as measured by state assessments, are an area of concern. The school’s performance on those measures is below what many parents would consider strong. For a family weighing this school, the most important factors are likely the school’s small-town setting, its role as a feeder into a consolidated county high school, and what specific academic supports and interventions are in place for students. The district’s adoption of a new reading curriculum suggests an awareness of the need for improvement, but it is too early to see whether that will translate into higher scores.
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