The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in Math. The lowest is 30% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Union Heights Elementary
Union Heights Elementary sits at the edge of Carthage, a small county-seat town on the north bank of the Cumberland River that belongs to the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area. Carthage has a compact historic downtown square anchored by the Smith County Courthouse, a Second Empire building on the National Register of Historic Places, with residential streets fanning out from the core. The town's population has been essentially flat for years, and no large-scale construction projects or new housing developments were identified in publicly available searches. Home values in the area are moderate relative to state and national benchmarks, and the housing market shows little sign of rapid appreciation. The school itself is part of Smith County Schools, a district that recently approved a budget without a property tax increase while providing employee raises and funding for a new school resource officer position. District officials have also discussed building a new Smith County Middle School facility, though that project remains under consideration rather than approved.
Union Heights serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade in a regular public school setting. Its enrollment is small for a PK-8 campus, with a student body that is predominantly white. A modest share of students are Hispanic, and a small number are of two or more races; other racial groups are represented in very low numbers. No data was available on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, nor on students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the extent of those support services.
State testing results, which come from the TNReady assessments, show a mixed picture. Full participation was reported. In math, about two out of every five students scored at or above the proficient level. In science, just under two in five were proficient. In English language arts, roughly one in three students met that bar, and in social studies, about three in ten did. These results represent a single year's snapshot; no multi-year trend data was available in the source materials. Because the school stops at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report.
The school's academic pathway is straightforward: it provides all core instruction through the elementary and middle school years, after which students move on to one of the district's high schools. No information was available about advanced coursework, elective offerings, or career and technical programs at this campus. The absence of data on staffing ratios, discipline incidents, and chronic absenteeism means a parent considering Union Heights would need to follow up with the school or district for those details.
The surrounding community offers limited street life, consistent with a small rural county seat. The courthouse square is the civic anchor, and schools in the district are clustered near downtown rather than on isolated campuses. Riverview Regional Medical Center is a local employer, along with Smith County government and the school system itself. There is no public transit system, and the town is served by state highways that connect to the broader region.
For families weighing this school, the primary known facts are its moderate state test performance across subjects, its small and largely homogeneous enrollment, its stable community context with a flat population trend and moderate home costs, and a district that has kept property taxes level while increasing staff pay. The gaps in publicly available data around student economic background, special education, and classroom supports leave important questions unanswered, but the information that is present gives a grounded picture of what Union Heights offers as a PK-8 option in a quiet county-seat town.
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