The top reported proficiency rate is 32% in Science. The lowest is 29% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Anderson Early Childhood
Anderson Early Childhood is a regular public school in Brownsville, Tennessee, serving only pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. It is a school for the earliest grades only, part of the Haywood County district. Because the school serves grades below those that participate in Tennessee’s state testing program, the testing data available is from many years ago and reflects a different era and grade configuration. The most recent assessment results on record come from the 2009-2010 school year, when the school appears to have served third through eighth grade students and tested a large cohort. A parent looking at current academic performance for Anderson’s pre-K and kindergarten programs will find no direct state proficiency measure to consult. That is built into the nature of the school: these grades are not part of the state’s standardized testing program. The older test scores, which showed proficiency rates around the 30 percent mark in math, reading, and science, are so dated and from a different grade span that they offer no useful guide to today’s early childhood classroom.
The school’s enrollment is small for a full K-12 school, but that number is entirely enrolled in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, which gives it a focused early-childhood mission. The student body is diverse. The largest share of students are Black, with a substantial white population and a smaller share identifying as Hispanic. A small number of students identify as two or more races or as American Indian or Alaska Native. Data on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, receive special education services, or are English learners is missing, so a reader cannot assess the concentration of high-need support from the available records. The school does not report its Title I status, discipline rates, staffing ratios, or chronic absenteeism figures.
Brownsville, where the school sits on West Main Street, is a small rural city and the Haywood County seat, located in central West Tennessee along Interstate 40. It has a historic town square, a downtown amphitheater, and cultural assets like the Tina Turner Museum and the Ann L. Marks Performing Arts Center, which reopened in early 2024 after storm renovations. The city frames itself as undergoing transformative growth tied to the nearby Memphis Regional Megasite, a large industrial development. Housing in the immediate area, based on the zip code the school sits in, is moderately priced relative to state and national benchmarks, with home values that are lower than the Tennessee average and typical rents that make the area more affordable for a family. The local unemployment rate is close to the national rate. The district itself shows no recent publicly reported changes in policy, curriculum, or property tax measures that would affect a parent’s decision.
For a family considering Anderson Early Childhood, the key facts are structural. The school is exclusively a pre-K and kindergarten entry point into the Haywood County system. There is no testing data that describes current student learning in these early grades. The older assessment record is not relevant to the current grade band. A parent wanting to evaluate the quality of the early childhood program would need to visit the school, speak with staff, and observe classrooms directly. The student body is majority Black with a significant white minority, and the school serves a town that is small, affordable by regional standards, and investing in its downtown and cultural profile. The district itself does not appear to be in a period of visible upheaval or major change based on available information. The main question for a family is whether the programming, staff, and environment of a dedicated early childhood center in this community is a good fit for their child, and that answer will come from a visit rather than from this data set.
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