The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Science. The lowest is 40% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Big Ridge Elementary
Big Ridge Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Maynardville, the county seat of Union County. It is a regular public school within the Union County school system and is not a charter school. The school’s enrollment is small for an elementary serving that grade band, and the student body is almost entirely white, with a very small number of students identified as Hispanic or of two or more races. Data on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, receive special education services, or are English learners was not provided, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those aspects of student support.
The community around Big Ridge Elementary is Maynardville, a small town that has become more suburban in character since the early 2000s, largely because State Route 33 was widened, making the drive to Knoxville quicker. The town sits in Raccoon Valley and has a traditional county-seat layout with a historic courthouse square at its core. The built environment is auto-oriented along the highway corridor, and most residents commute to jobs in the broader Knoxville area, working primarily in professional services, trade, and manufacturing. Norris Lake, a major recreational destination, is a short distance to the north. The housing market in the area shows home values near the national median, and the town’s homeowner vacancy rate is low, suggesting a fairly tight housing supply. No specific major new housing developments were identified in available sources, and the district did not have any recent parent-relevant changes to report.
On state testing, Big Ridge Elementary’s results come from the TNReady assessments administered in the 2024-25 school year. In English language arts, a share of students scored at the proficient level or above, and in math, the share was lower. In science, roughly half of students met the proficiency benchmark. These results reflect how students in grades three through five performed in a single year. The school had full participation in testing. The data for social studies is from several years earlier and is not comparable due to changes in the test, so it does not provide a current picture of performance in that subject. There was no comparison data available from other districts within Union County because the cohort was too small to generate a meaningful comparison, so this school cannot be positioned relative to its county peers on proficiency.
For a family considering Big Ridge Elementary, the key takeaway is that it is a small, predominantly white elementary school in a town that offers a rural-small-town feel with growing suburban commuter access to Knoxville. The academic picture shows that a solid portion of students met state standards in ELA and science, while math proficiency was lower. Free or reduced-price lunch data was missing, and no data on special education or English learner populations was reported, so a parent looking for details on the range of student supports and the economic makeup of the school community will need to follow up with the school directly. The school does not serve grades beyond fifth, so there is no graduation rate to consider, and it does not offer high school programs like AP or career pathways. The district gave no indication of major changes or initiatives underway, meaning the school’s day-to-day operations and offerings likely reflect a stable, established pattern.
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