Elizabethton High School is a testament to how meaningful, engaged learning starts in a few classrooms and builds into a small-town mission to offer the best high school learning experiences for its students. The school has received great recognition for innovative project-based learning classes, including national student journalism awards, attention from major media outlets, and official recognition from the Tennessee state legislature. 

Students in one sociology class investigated and helped solve a cold case from the 1980s, leading the authorities to identify the murder suspect. They started their research in 2018 and subsequent students continued investigating links between that crime and a series of murders. In 2024, their work became the subject of iHeart radio’s hit true-crime podcast series “Murder 101,” now set to become a feature-length film. 

Elizabethton’s educators are leaders in making project-based learning accessible and achievable. Other classes have conducted oral history projects capturing the legacy of veterans and even animated stories teaching elementary students about the difficult subject of drug addiction. Because of powerful learning experiences like these, the school started a course on teaching as a profession in response to student requests. 

Designed by students, for students, Elizabethton High School also has a student liaison to the local school board and a Cyclone Student Center, built at the students’ request to make the former main office an inviting place for students to seek school resources and college information. Today, Elizabethton retains the best traditions of a comprehensive high school—with its football team, marching band, and clubs—while also providing a new model for high school that encourages students to play a much more active role in their learning.

Student Outcomes

• In 2022, EHS had an on-time graduation rate of 93 percent, higher than that of other high schools in Carter County and the state (83 and 90 percent, respectively). It also had a higher 2022 graduation rate than the county and the state for nearly every student group for which the state reported data, including students from low-income families and students with disabilities.
• The 2022 graduates had higher rates of proficiency on standardized assessments than their counterparts statewide in English, math, and social studies (e.g., 53 percent versus 44 percent meeting college-ready benchmarks in English on the ACT exam). 
• Among Elizabethton’s graduating seniors in 2022, more than half had already earned dual enrollment credits at local colleges and universities, according to XQ’s Senior Survey.