Original Research by School Decision on The Phoenix School
The Phoenix School, in Crossville, Tennessee, is a regular public high school serving grades nine through twelve. It is part of the Cumberland County school district. The school is a small institution, and its enrollment is weighted very heavily toward seniors; the senior class is the largest by a wide margin, while the freshman class is a very small group. The student body is predominantly white, with a smaller share of Hispanic students and a very small number of Black students. Data on economic disadvantage, special education, and English learner status were not reported. The school is not a charter school, and its Title I status was not provided in the available data.
A central and defining feature of The Phoenix School is that state testing data and a four-year graduation rate were not available. This is a significant gap for any high school, as those are the primary measures of academic performance and student outcomes that families typically use to understand a school’s effectiveness. Without this information, it is not possible to evaluate the school’s academic proficiency, its year-to-year trends, or its success in graduating students on time. A parent considering this school should look into this further with the school or district. The absence of this data may reflect the school’s nature, perhaps as an alternative or special-population setting, but the provided information does not specify a reason.
The school offers no information on course access, programs, or staffing. There is no data on discipline, attendance, or chronic absenteeism. The civil rights and outcomes data section was also empty. This means there is no publicly visible picture of the academic pathways available to students, such as Advanced Placement, career and technical education, or dual enrollment. It also means there is no insight into school climate metrics like suspension rates or student attendance.
Crossville, the city where the school is located, is the county seat of Cumberland County. It is a community shaped by its position at the crossroads of Interstate 40 and two U.S. highways, and it functions as a regional commercial center. The downtown is centered on a traditional courthouse square, which hosts City Hall, the county courthouse, the Palace Theatre, and the Native Stone Museum. The Cumberland County Playhouse is a major cultural institution in the area. The community promotes itself as a golf destination and has seen development driven by its highway access and appeal as a retirement and tourism location. The city is car-dependent, with schools and other institutions located on separate campuses away from the downtown core. The school itself is situated on Taylor Street, in what appears to be a residential or mixed-use area of the city.
The housing market in the area is accessible relative to national averages. Home values are moderately below the state benchmark, and rents are at a level that is a modest share of a typical household income. This suggests the area is a relatively affordable place for families to live, which can be an important factor when considering a school.
The district comparison fact-set places The Phoenix School relative to other districts in Cumberland County. However, because this is the only school-level entity in the comparison, the data does not produce meaningful position indicators for any of the three metrics that were considered: overall proficiency, four-year graduation rate, and chronic absenteeism. All three were deemed not applicable because the entity’s own values were missing. This reinforces the fundamental challenge in evaluating the school: the standard academic and outcome benchmarks are simply absent from the record. A family would need to seek this information directly from the school to form a complete picture.
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