The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly School Districts in Tennessee.

by Rod Williams, Dec. 3, 2024- Last week the Tennessee Department of Education released its 2024 District Accountability report on the quality of the Tennessee's public schools. This is an annual report required by federal and state law that puts each of Tennessee's 147 School districts into one of several categories. The categories are Exemplary, Advancing, Satisfactory, Marginal, and In Need of Improvement.

Under Tennessee’s accountability system, districts are expected to increase achievement levels for all students and demonstrate student growth across all student groups. Districts are assessed on their performance across six critical performance indicators measured through multiple pathways. The indicators include Grade Band Success Rates, rates at which students are Chronically Out of School, performance on the English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA), and Graduation rates. District accountability scores are calculated using a weighted average of the district’s scores across all indicators and student groups to determine a district’s designation.

The "in need of improvement" schools are those districts in which their overall score falls in the bottom five percent of all districts. These school districts are Decatur County Schools, Hancock County Schools, Hardeman County Schools, Humboldt City Schools, Johnson County Schools, Lawrence County Schools, Lewis County Schools, Perry County Schools, Sequatchie County Schools, and Tennessee Schools for the Deaf.

Knox County Schools and Hamilton County Schools are in the satisfactory category. Memphis-Shelby County Schools, and Metro Nashville Public Schools are in the advancing category. For a complete list of all school systems and what designation they receive, follow this link. 

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