The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Social studies. The lowest is 38% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on New Union Elementary
New Union Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in the Coffee County school district, just outside Manchester, Tennessee. It is a regular public school, and its roughly three hundred students make it a relatively small elementary school for its grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population that represents a meaningful share of the enrollment, and very small numbers of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, nor were counts of students with individualized education programs or English learner classifications, so a family evaluating economic diversity or special education support levels will need to ask the school directly for that picture.
On state assessments administered through Tennessee’s TNReady program, New Union Elementary posted results worth a close look. In math, about three in eight students scored at the proficient or advanced level. In English language arts, just over two in five students reached that same threshold. Science proficiency was similar, with roughly two in five students meeting the standard. These figures place the school’s overall proficiency, across tested subjects and grades, in the top quartile among the districts in Coffee County, meaning it performs on the stronger side relative to its immediate peers within the county. That is the relevant comparison set here. The school’s social studies assessment data comes from several years ago and involved a change in both the test and its cut scores, so that older result is not comparable to current performance and should not be used as a measure of today’s program. Participation rates on the current assessments were near perfect, indicating that nearly all enrolled students took the tests, which gives the results solid standing.
For a school that ends at fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and no chronic absenteeism data was available in the information provided. The school does not appear to have program offerings such as magnet or career pathways listed in the data, and it is a regular public school without charter status. Title I status was not reported. Families interested in what beyond-core programming is available, including any enrichment, arts, or intervention supports, would need to seek that information from the school itself.
Manchester is a small city and the county seat of Coffee County, situated about an hour’s drive northwest of Chattanooga and a similar distance southeast of Nashville. It is a place shaped by its dual identity: a quiet residential and government center for most of the year, and the host of the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which draws a very large temporary population to Great Stage Park for a few days each summer. Outside of that event, the city functions as a standard Tennessee county seat, with the courthouse at its center, commercial corridors along Hillsboro Boulevard and near Interstate 24, and a low-density layout oriented toward car travel. Key civic anchors include the courthouse, Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park, and the fairgrounds that host the Coffee County Fair each September. Information on major employers and on recent residential or commercial growth was not found in available sources, so a family considering moving to the area would benefit from a direct look at local employment patterns and housing development trends.
The Coffee County school district itself did not show any recent changes of lasting public note in available research, so there is no district-level shift to report that would affect a family’s decision about New Union Elementary.
The most straightforward takeaway for a parent is this: New Union Elementary is a small elementary school that performs solidly compared with other schools in Coffee County, though its absolute proficiency rates mean that a good portion of students are not yet meeting state benchmarks in math, reading, and science. A family choosing this school should expect a predominantly white student population, a rural county-seat community setting, and a need to follow up directly on both the school’s support services and the area’s local economic context, which are lightly documented in the data available here.
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