The top reported proficiency rate is 67% in Math. The lowest is 45% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Holice Powell Elementary
Holice Powell Elementary, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, is a regular public school in the Dyer County School District. It sits on Highway 210 South, just outside the center of Dyersburg. The school draws from a part of Dyersburg that falls under the county district, rather than the separate Dyersburg City School District. Dyersburg itself is the county seat of Dyer County and functions as a regional retail and medical hub for a tri-state area, blending a historic downtown with residential neighborhoods and larger institutions such as West Tennessee Healthcare Dyersburg Hospital and Dyersburg State Community College.
The school's enrollment is relatively small for an elementary school covering seven grade levels, and its student body is predominantly white. A considerable share of the remaining students identify as two or more races, with very small numbers of Black and Hispanic students enrolled. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, as well as counts of students with individualized education programs or English learner classifications, were not provided. A parent seeking a sense of the school's economic or linguistic composition would want to follow up directly with the school.
On the 2024-25 Tennessee state assessments, Holice Powell posted academic results that are above the midpoint among elementary schools serving Dyer County's district boundaries. In math, a strong majority of students scored at or above the proficient level. In science, the share of students reaching proficiency was also solidly above half. In English language arts, about half of students met the proficiency benchmark, a figure that aligns with a common pattern across Tennessee elementary schools where literacy lags behind math. An older social studies assessment from 2017-18 is on file, but because Tennessee changed both the test and the cut scores since then, that result is not comparable to the current year and is best set aside.
The school's overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades places it among the top quartile relative to other districts in Dyer County. That comparison should be read with the understanding that the county contains only a small number of district-level entities, so a high position within that set does not necessarily mean the same thing it would in a larger metro county. The school earned perfect participation rates on the state tests, which signals that families and staff take assessment seriously.
Holice Powell is not a charter school, and its magnet status was not reported. No information was available on program offerings such as gifted education, arts specialization, or before- or after-school care. The school environment data, including discipline rates, course access, staffing ratios, and attendance patterns, were also absent from the profile. A parent weighing this school would benefit from visiting and asking directly about enrichment opportunities and the daily classroom experience.
The Dyer County district itself showed no recent parent-relevant changes in publicly available information, and the local housing market in the school's ZIP code is more affordable than the state average, with home values having been relatively flat and rents rising modestly. For a family looking for a small elementary school in a regional town with a solid academic record on state testing, particularly in math and science, Holice Powell presents a clear option. The gaps in publicly available data on special populations and programming mean some homework is required to get a full picture of supports and offerings.
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