Linden Elementary vs Willow Brook Elementary

Linden Elementary and Willow Brook Elementary sit 1.7 miles apart in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, both rated among the top schools in the state — but the gap between them is meaningful. Linden Elementary holds an overall rating of 9.5/10 against Willow Brook Elementary's 9.1/10, and the state rank spread reinforces that delta: Linden Elementary ranks #9 of 1,785 Tennessee schools while Willow Brook Elementary ranks #39 of 1,785. Both are exceptional placements, but families weighing the two should know Linden Elementary sits 30 spots closer to the top of a 1,785-school field.

The sharpest divergence sits in academics. Linden Elementary scores 9.6/10 on academic proficiency versus Willow Brook Elementary's 7.6/10 — a two-point gap that reflects a concrete difference in how students at each school perform on Tennessee's standardized assessments. On growth, however, both schools are identical: each earns a 9.8/10, meaning students at Willow Brook Elementary progress through the curriculum at the same accelerated rate as those at Linden Elementary, regardless of where they start. Parents should read those two data points together — Willow Brook Elementary closes gaps at the same speed, but starts from a lower proficiency baseline.

Linden Elementary enrolls 525 students compared to Willow Brook Elementary's 412, and the student-teacher ratio reflects that scale. Linden Elementary runs at 15.0 students per teacher while Willow Brook Elementary's ratio is 11.4:1 — nearly four fewer students per teacher. That smaller ratio at Willow Brook Elementary translates to more individual instructional time per child, which may partially explain why its growth score matches a school with a significantly higher academic ceiling.

Both schools serve grades KG through 04, so families with children anywhere in that range will find the same grade span at either campus. The structural similarity makes the comparison clean: same city, same grade levels, same exceptional growth scores — the divergence comes down to current academic proficiency (Linden Elementary's clear edge), raw class size, and whether a top-10 versus top-40 state ranking matters to a given family.