Tennessee Temple Academy is a K-12 school in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...

, that is operated in association with Tennessee Temple University

Tennessee Temple University

Tennessee Temple University is a four-year private Christian university, with its focus on liberal arts education, located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Operating there, also, is Temple Baptist Seminary, the university's graduate school of Christian theology....

. In March 2011, the university announced that the school would close at the end of the 2010-2011 school year.

History

Tennessee Temple Academy was established in 1951 as a Southern Baptist elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 that included kindergarten

Kindergarten

A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

 and grades 1 through 5. It enrolled 132 students that year. High school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 and middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 programs were added in 1971, and the school achieved its peak enrollment of about 1,000 students in 1980.

The school enjoyed some athletic success in the 2000s, winning three Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association

Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is an organization which administers junior and senior high school sporting events in Tennessee.-Description:...

 (TSSAA) boys' basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 championships in a five-period beginning in 2002.

By the 2010-2011 school year, total enrollment had declined to 140 students, with just seven or eight students in some grades. In view of this low enrollment, the school's board of directors voted to cease operations at the end of the school year. The March 2011 announcement of the closure indicated that the school would continue offering an “online academy

Distance education

Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom...

” and a dual enrollment

Dual enrollment

In education, dual enrollment involved students being enrolled in two separate, academically related institutions. It may also refer to any individual who is participating in two related programs, but such a general form of usage is uncommon....

program under which high school juniors and seniors could enroll in university classes.