The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Math. The lowest is 28% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Upperman Middle School
Upperman Middle School, a regular public school serving grades five through eight in Baxter, Tennessee, sits within the Putnam County school system. The school is a large middle school for its grade band, drawing students from the town of Baxter and the surrounding western part of the county.
Baxter is a small town with a traditional main street along Broad Street, anchored by a restored railroad depot that now serves as a museum and visitors center. The town has a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial areas, with a railroad line running through its central business and industrial districts. The community is growing rapidly, and the school sits within the town’s footprint alongside other Putnam County schools, rather than on a remote campus. Nearby outdoor attractions include Cummins Falls State Park and Burgess Falls State Park.
The academic picture at Upperman Middle School is mixed and a parent considering the school will want to weigh the subject-area differences carefully. On state assessments, mathematics stands as a clear relative strength, with a majority of students scoring at the proficient level or above. Science proficiency is also a positive area, with a sizable share of students meeting the bar. English language arts and social studies, however, represent soft spots. In ELA, the share of students reaching proficiency is noticeably lower, and the same is true for social studies. A family whose child struggles with reading or writing may want to look into what targeted supports the school offers. The school administers the TNReady assessments, and participation rates across all tested subjects are high.
The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of Hispanic and Black students, and very small representations of Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and two-or-more-races students. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are classified as English learners was not available. Those gaps are meaningful because they affect the range of supports a family might expect to find, and a parent should ask the school directly about these populations and the resources dedicated to them.
The district brief for Putnam County did not surface any recent, lasting changes to district policy, programming, or facilities that a parent would need to factor into a school decision. The district is the sole school system in the county, so the comparison set of other districts in Putnam County is too small to produce meaningful benchmarking against neighbors.
Housing in the area surrounding the school is moderately priced relative to national benchmarks, and the estimated monthly mortgage payment on a typical home is within reach for many middle-income households. Rents are also affordable compared to the national average, and the cost of renting is lower than the cost of buying a comparable home in the current interest rate environment. The local economy has a low unemployment rate, and median household income at the national level has been stable in recent years.
Upperman Middle School does not offer any publicly reported data on course access, staffing ratios, discipline incidents, or attendance patterns. Without that information, a family cannot evaluate the breadth of elective or advanced coursework available, the school’s climate around behavior and safety, or how many students are chronically absent. These are significant unknowns that a parent should investigate through a school visit and conversation with the principal. The school website and the district office would be the appropriate places to start.
The school is not a charter school, and its Title I status was not reported. It operates as a regular public school open to all students in its attendance zone. For a family living in Baxter or nearby parts of western Putnam County, Upperman Middle School offers a math and science program that appears to be performing better than its ELA and social studies outcomes, set in a growing small town with accessible housing and easy access to outdoor recreation. The missing data on student supports and school climate means that the full picture requires a conversation with the school itself.
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