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Elizabethton, Tennessee - 5 schools
An equity score of 37/100 ranks Elizabethton #69 of 140 districts in Tennessee (state average 38). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,642 per pupil, Elizabethton ranks #24 of 141 Tennessee districts by per-pupil spending (Tennessee districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
2,738
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$11,642
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, High
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Elizabethton operates 5 public schools serving 2,738 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Tennessee. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 elementary, 1 high, 1 middle, 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Carter County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,642 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 141 Tennessee districts by per-pupil spending. See how Tennessee compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 34.5% local, 46.8% state, and 18.7% federal, a balanced mix across local, state, and federal sources, spreading budget risk across funding cycles rather than concentrating it in one. The district's equity score is 37/100, ranked #69 of 140 in Tennessee against a state average of 38, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (7 AP courses district-wide), a 385.1:1 student-counselor ratio, well above the ASCA benchmark though still under the roughly 408:1 national average, and 19.3% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 88.9% White, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 2.1% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is East Side Elementary, with a diversity index of 23.7/100.
Its largest campus is Elizabethton High School, enrolling 886 students (33% of the district's total enrollment).
Elizabethton High School accounts for 32.4% of all Elizabethton student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Elizabethton-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Elizabethton school enrollment varies 2.6× across entities
Elizabethton school enrollment ranges from 341 students (lowest) to 886 students (highest), a spread of 545 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Elizabethton student-counselor ratio is 385:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Elizabethton chronic absenteeism rate is 19.3% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Variation between sub-units within Elizabethton is typically wider than the Elizabethton-aggregate figure suggests.