The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Science. The lowest is 51% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Big Ridge Elementary School
Big Ridge Elementary School is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the Hixson community of Hamilton County, Tennessee. It is a standard elementary school within the Hamilton County school district, not a charter or magnet school. The school is located on Cassandra Smith Road in Hixson, a suburban area that was once an unincorporated community and is now part of the city of Chattanooga. Hixson is characterized by residential subdivisions, commercial corridors centered around the Northgate Mall area, and a car-dependent layout with no traditional downtown.
The student body has a composition that is primarily white, with smaller shares of Asian, Hispanic, and multiracial students, and a smaller share of Black students. The school serves a substantial enrollment for an elementary school in its grade band. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, which is a gap that a parent may want to follow up on with the school. Civil rights data on special education and English learner populations was also not reported for this school.
State testing data for the most recent year shows performance that a family would want to consider carefully. On the TNReady assessments, the share of students scoring at the proficient level or above was above the midpoint in English language arts and in science. In math, the share was below the midpoint among state-tested schools. These results place the school in a mixed position relative to other elementary schools in the state. A social studies result from an earlier year exists, but assessment and cut-score changes make that data non-comparable to current measures.
Because this is an elementary school only, there are no graduation rate or college readiness metrics to report. The school participates fully in the district’s recent pedagogical shift, as Hamilton County Schools moved to a structured literacy approach grounded in the science of reading, beginning with the primary grades in a recent school year and expanding upward. This change replaced a balanced literacy model with explicit phonics-based instruction and represents a lasting change to how reading is taught across the district.
The housing market in the school’s zip code shows home values that are slightly above the state benchmark and near the national median, suggesting a moderately priced market relative to the broader U.S. Rents are also near the national pattern, with the estimated rent-to-income ratio falling in a range that many households manage, though a family’s individual situation will vary. The local economy has shown a national unemployment rate and a median household income that, while not specific to Hixson, provide a general context of a stable post-pandemic labor market.
The community itself is undergoing some changes that directly affect the school landscape. The Hamilton County Board of Education has selected two elementary schools for reassignment. While Big Ridge Elementary itself is not named in those plans, the fact that DuPont Elementary is scheduled to close and merge with two other schools, and that Ganns Middle Valley Elementary is slated for a new building on a site to be determined, signals that the district is reshaping its elementary footprint. A parent moving into the area may want to confirm whether any future boundary adjustments could affect Big Ridge.
Hixson’s civic assets include Greenway Farms, with hiking and sports fields, the Chickamauga Dam and marinas along the Tennessee River, and Valleybrook Golf Course, which has a history as a PGA stop. The Northgate Mall, recently purchased with a major renovation announced, serves as the commercial anchor. Schools in Hixson are spread across the community on separated campuses, typical of suburban development.
For a family considering this school, the picture is one of a suburban elementary school with a sizable enrollment, a mostly majority-white student body, mixed test results with a stronger showing in literacy and science compared to math, and a neighborhood context that is car-dependent and commercially anchored by a mall and strip development. The district is actively implementing a structured literacy approach and reorganizing some of its elementary schools, which are factors a parent would want to understand in relation to their own child’s needs and the stability of the school’s attendance zone.
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