Holston Elementary, Blountville TN

Original Research by School Decision on Holston Elementary

Holston Elementary serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade in the unincorporated community of Blountville, the county seat of Sullivan County. It is a regular public school within the Sullivan County district.

The school’s performance on Tennessee’s TNReady assessments places its overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades below the midpoint relative to the district’s three elementary-level feeders. In math and English language arts, the share of students scoring at or above proficient is below the district median; science proficiency runs somewhat higher than those two subjects, though still below the midpoint when combined into the index. Social studies data comes from a school year several years ago and involved an assessment change, so current comparison is not possible. State testing data for the most recent year showed participation rates very close to universal.

Holston Elementary enrolls an overwhelmingly white student body, with small shares of Hispanic, Black, Asian, and multiracial students. The school is of a size that allows for multiple sections per grade without being crowded. Information on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, students with disabilities, and English learners was not available in the data we received, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about these support populations.

The surrounding community of Blountville is a small, unincorporated census-designated place that serves as the county seat. It has a compact historic downtown centered on the Sullivan County Courthouse, with several eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings listed on the National Register. The area is part of the Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area, and many residents commute to nearby cities for work. Population growth has been very slow, and the closure of the former Blountville Elementary & Middle School in 2021 shifted educational facilities away from the town center. Northeast State Community College is located in Blountville, and Tri-Cities Regional Airport sits nearby. Housing values in the broader area land below the national benchmark, and the estimated monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home is modest relative to national household income.

The most notable change affecting families at Holston Elementary is a district-wide shift to a four-day school week, which began in the school year that just completed. Sullivan County Schools made the change, citing teacher recruitment and retention difficulties along with budget pressures. This schedule has direct consequences for childcare arrangements, instructional time, and family routines. A parent considering this school should understand how that schedule fits their household.

Because Holston Elementary serves only primary and intermediate grades, there is no graduation rate to report and no data on chronic absenteeism or discipline in the available records. The school offers no programs beyond its regular elementary curriculum that were visible in the provided material.

Overall, Holston Elementary presents as a moderately sized elementary school in a slowly growing rural county seat, with academic results that trail the district’s median in reading and math. The four-day week is the single biggest operational feature a family would need to weigh, as it reshapes the school experience for everyone.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grades 3-842%

School 42% · District 42% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

English language arts

Grades 3-842%

School 42% · District 38% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Science

Grades 3-848%

School 48% · District 44% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Social studies

Grades 3-843%

School 43% · District 42% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

This schoolSullivan County, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income33%Higher-income57%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income25%Higher-income49%24 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income32%1 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income31%Higher-income45%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income10%Higher-income46%36 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income45%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income39%Higher-income52%13 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income22%Higher-income48%26 pp gap