The top reported proficiency rate is 15% in Social studies. The lowest is 11% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Tommie F. Brown Academy
Tommie F. Brown Academy is a regular public elementary school in Chattanooga serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school sits within the Hamilton County district, a system that has made a district-wide shift to a structured literacy approach grounded in the science of reading, a change that began with the earliest grades in 2022 and has since expanded. This pedagogical change affects how reading is taught across all elementary schools in the district, including Tommie F. Brown Academy.
The student body is small for an elementary school. The overwhelming majority of students are Black, with smaller shares of students who identify as two or more races, Hispanic, and white. The school does not appear to report data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, nor on the share of students receiving special education services or classified as English learners, so these dimensions of the student population are not available for this profile.
State testing results from the most recent available year show that proficiency rates in math, English language arts, and science are well below state averages. About one in nine students scored at the proficient level or above in both math and English language arts, and a slightly larger share reached that threshold in science. These are low rates of academic attainment across the core tested subjects. A parent considering this school would want to understand the school's approach to raising achievement and what academic interventions or supports are in place for students who are not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks. Participation rates on the state assessments were high, meaning the reported results reflect nearly the entire tested population.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. No data on chronic absenteeism or other civil-rights indicators such as discipline rates were available in the data provided.
Tommie F. Brown Academy is located in Chattanooga, a mid-sized city that has undergone a prolonged downtown renaissance and was named America's first National Park City in 2025. Chattanooga's economy is diversified across automotive and advanced manufacturing, healthcare, insurance, tourism, and corporate operations. The Tennessee Valley Authority and the city-owned utility EPB are major institutional presences. Downtown is walkable and home to cultural attractions such as the Tennessee Aquarium, but outside the core the city is largely car-dependent, spread across ridges and valleys along the Tennessee River. Population growth has been steady, and the broader metropolitan area is growing.
Housing in the school's zip code carries a value near the national median, with rents that have been rising. The area is broadly typical of the national housing market in terms of affordability pressures. The school is located on East 8th Street in Chattanooga, and the district has recently opened a new elementary school in the East Brainerd corridor to address growth in that part of the county, a change that affects school zoning for families in that area but does not directly bear on this school's attendance zone.
Because Tommie F. Brown Academy serves grades PK through 5, the school has no high school program offerings to report, and no data on course access, staffing ratios, or discipline records were available. The comparison set for placing this school against its peers relies on districts within Hamilton County, but the cohort was too small to generate comparative proficiency or attendance metrics, so a within-county benchmark is not available here. A family evaluating this school will want to visit, talk with the principal about academic supports and the school's implementation of the district's literacy initiative, and understand how the school is working to improve outcomes for its students.
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