The Light Bearer

How Black students are performing in Tennessee schools

In Williamson County, one of the wealthiest districts in Tennessee, the gap between the best and worst school for Black children is 65 points. This tool helps you find the right one.

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39.8%
All students
30.8%
Black
35.8%
Hispanic
49.6%
White
69.1%
Asian

Share of students meeting met or exceeded expectations at the typical Tennessee school. Groups are shown wherever Tennessee reports them; a group is omitted from a school when too few students were tested to report safely.

These figures come from TDOE TCAP 2024–25, measuring met or exceeded expectations in All Subjects · Grades 3–12. Across 123 districts, 1,258 Tennessee schools report enough results to be included.

At the typical Tennessee school the picture is black students at 30.8%, hispanic students at 35.8%, white students at 49.6% and asian students at 69.1%. That is a 38.3-point spread between the highest and lowest group, inside the same schools, the same districts and the same state — which is what this tool exists to make visible.

What the Tennessee data shows

Landscape
12.5 %

of Tennessee schools have Black students performing at or above their own school average

155 of the 1,242 schools with at least 25 Black student results. At the other 1,087, Black students trail their own classmates — same building, same teachers, same principal.

Disparity
64.5 pts

gap between the best and worst schools for Black students in Williamson County

Among the 42 Williamson schools with at least 25 Black student results, Clovercroft Elementary has 77.8% of its Black students proficient. Fairview Elementary, in the same district, has 13.3%. Williamson is one of the wealthiest counties in Tennessee.

Opportunity
8

schools where 80%+ of Black students are proficient, with 50 or more students tested

Martin Luther King Jr School in Davidson County leads on scale, at 81.7% across 843 Black student results. Tennessee's proficiency bar is strict — statewide, the median school has just 30% of Black students proficient.

Where Black students are doing best in Tennessee

These are the schools where Black students most often meet met or exceeded expectations, among those with at least 25 Black student results reported. Every group's result is shown alongside, because a school that serves one group well and another poorly is telling you something too.

SchoolAllBlackHispanicWhiteAsian
Discovery SchoolMurfreesboro Magnet 94.2% 95% 93.3% 93.4% 94.4%
Central Magnet SchoolRutherford County Magnet 95% 95% 95% 95% 95%
McFadden School Of ExcellenceRutherford County Magnet 95% 95% 95% 95%
Thurman Francis Arts Academy/Magnet School for the ArtsRutherford County Magnet 95% 95% 95% 95% 95%
Merrol Hyde Magnet SchoolSumner County Magnet 95% 95% 95% 95%
Hume - Fogg HighDavidson County Magnet 93% 89.7% 91.2% 93.8% 93.7%
Spanish Immersion @ BarksdaleMontgomery County 80.5% 86.4% 71.1% 83.1%
Meigs MiddleDavidson County Magnet 92.6% 84.9% 85.5% 94.1% 94.5%
Martin Luther King Jr SchoolDavidson County Magnet 87.4% 81.7% 88.3% 90% 92.3%
Arlington ElementaryArlington 80.2% 80.7% 73.4% 80.1% 90.6%

Flags show magnet, charter, alternative and virtual schools. Some campuses — early college and specialized academies among them — also admit by application, and this page cannot yet identify all of them. Check with the district before assuming a school is open to your address.

Where Black students are struggling most

The same measure at the other end of the range. In many of these schools every group is falling short, which points at the school rather than at the students in it.

SchoolAllBlackHispanicWhiteAsian
Caldwell-GuthrieMemphis-Shelby County Schools 5% 5%
Rogersville Middle SchoolHawkins County 29.6% 5% 27.3% 30.5%
Calvin Donaldson Environmental Science AcademyHamilton County Magnet 5.4% 5% 7% 10%
Murrell at Glenn SchoolDavidson County Sped 5% 5%
Hamilton SchoolMemphis-Shelby County Schools 5.4% 5.1% 11%
Hardy Elementary SchoolHamilton County 6.3% 5.2% 20.3%
Grandview Heights Middle SchoolMemphis-Shelby County Schools 5.6% 5.4% 13.3%
Carver College and Career AcademyMemphis-Shelby County Schools 5.4% 5.5% 6.7%
Richard Yoakley SchoolKnox County Alt 7.4% 5.5% 15.5%
Hamilton HighMemphis-Shelby County Schools 5.7% 5.6% 5%

One district, two outcomes

In Sumner County, Merrol Hyde Magnet School reports 95% of Black students meeting the standard. Westmoreland Middle School, in the same district, reports 9.3%. That is a 85.7-point spread across 42 schools under one administration, serving one community, funded by one tax base — the clearest illustration of why address matters more than it should.

Tennessee districts

Districts with at least ten schools reporting Black student results, by school count. The percentage shown is the average across that district's schools for Black students.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools — 198 schools, 22.8% average
Davidson County — 140 schools, 24.1% average
Knox County — 78 schools, 28.2% average
Hamilton County — 72 schools, 25.3% average
Rutherford County — 49 schools, 42.5% average
Sumner County — 42 schools, 38.3% average
Williamson County — 42 schools, 55.6% average
Montgomery County — 40 schools, 35.4% average
Madison County — 24 schools, 22.4% average
Wilson County — 21 schools, 42.1% average
Maury County — 20 schools, 25.3% average
Tennessee Public Charter School Commission — 16 schools, 29.3% average
Robertson County — 15 schools, 23.2% average
Bedford County — 13 schools, 33.7% average
Hamblen County — 13 schools, 40.7% average
Murfreesboro — 13 schools, 36.5% average
Tipton County — 13 schools, 30.8% average
Dickson County — 11 schools, 37.9% average
Johnson City — 11 schools, 58.5% average
Kingsport — 11 schools, 41.5% average
Bartlett — 10 schools, 46% average
Sevier County — 10 schools, 30.3% average
Bradley County — 9 schools, 38% average
Collierville — 9 schools, 57.6% average
Hardeman County Schools — 9 schools, 21.3% average
Cleveland — 8 schools, 23.7% average
Franklin SSD — 8 schools, 44.4% average
Jefferson County — 8 schools, 33.3% average
McMinn County — 8 schools, 31.7% average
Roane County — 8 schools, 28.7% average
Washington County — 8 schools, 40.7% average
Blount County — 7 schools, 29.2% average
Fayette County Public Schools — 7 schools, 14.6% average
Lebanon — 7 schools, 36.1% average
Oak Ridge — 7 schools, 34.3% average
Tullahoma — 7 schools, 27% average
Warren County — 7 schools, 28.2% average
Weakley County — 7 schools, 38.4% average
Franklin County — 6 schools, 22.7% average
Gibson Co Sp Dist — 6 schools, 38.4% average
How these averages are calculated. The figures above average across Tennessee schools, giving each school equal weight. They describe the typical school, not the state's tested population, and will differ from the headline figure TDOE TCAP 2024–25 publishes — that one weights every student equally, so larger schools count for more. Use the state's own published figure when citing a statewide number.

How to read the school data. Tennessee suppresses results for groups under 10 students, and for rates below 5% or above 95%. Those schools appear at the boundary value and are excluded from headline statistics. This ranking reflects the 2024–25 school year, combining achievement tests (grades 3–8) and end-of-course exams (high school). TDOE publishes updated data annually each summer. Because every state sets its own proficiency standard, Tennessee's figures should not be compared directly against another state's.

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