The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Math. The lowest is 39% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Sam Houston Elementary
Sam Houston Elementary sits within the Lebanon Special School District, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school is a regular public elementary school in Lebanon, Tennessee, a fast-growing city east of Nashville that blends a historic downtown square with corporate headquarters and new manufacturing plants. The community is car-dependent overall, though the town square provides a walkable commercial hub. The school building itself is located on Oakdale Drive in a residential part of the city.
The student body is several hundred children, with significant racial and ethnic diversity. White students account for the majority, Black and Hispanic students each make up a meaningful share of the enrollment, and a smaller number of students identify as two or more races or as Asian. Data on students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, receive special education services, or are English learners was not available, so the overall economic and support-needs profile of the school is not fully captured in this account.
Academically, Sam Houston Elementary participates in the Tennessee state testing program, TNReady, for grades three through five. In the most recent test results, mathematics performance stood out as a relative strength, with well over half of students meeting or exceeding the state’s proficiency standard. Science performance fell in a middle range. English language arts performance showed a lower proficiency rate, with less than half of students reaching the bar. This gap between math and reading results is one a parent may want to explore further with the school, particularly on the types of literacy support available in the early grades. A social studies assessment from several years ago is not directly comparable because the test and cut scores have since changed. Across the tested subjects combined, the school’s overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint when compared to the two districts in Wilson County that serve elementary grades.
Because Sam Houston is an elementary school, no high school graduation rate is reported, and no data on chronic absenteeism was available in the provided records.
A structural feature that matters for families in Lebanon is the district arrangement. The Lebanon Special School District covers pre-K through eighth grade. All of Lebanon is then zoned to Wilson County Schools for high school, meaning students must transition between two separate school systems after eighth grade. This split has implications for curriculum continuity, extracurricular planning, and family logistics.
The housing market in the area reflects the region’s rapid growth and desirability. Home values are higher than the state and national medians, and rents follow a similar pattern. The estimated monthly mortgage cost, based on median home values and recent interest rates, represents a substantial share of median household income, making homeownership a stretch for many. Rents, while slightly lower than the estimated mortgage, are still elevated. Lebanon has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, with significant corporate investment, new manufacturing plants, and a recent Vanderbilt hospital campus, all of which continue to shape the community and put pressure on infrastructure and schools.
In sum, Sam Houston Elementary offers a math program that performs above the county midpoint on state tests, while ELA results sit lower. The student body is diverse, though the lack of economic and special-population data makes it harder to gauge the full range of student needs. Families living in Lebanon should also be aware of the split district structure that will eventually require a transition to Wilson County Schools for high school. The surrounding area is growing quickly, with a housing market that has become expensive relative to state and national averages.
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