Shining a light on education & government in TennesseeShining a light on education & government in TennesseeOn-time graduation rates, dropout rates, and Ready Graduate metrics for every Tennessee high school. The diploma is one measure of a school’s work. Pair it with readiness for the rest.
Tennessee uses the federal four-year adjusted cohort method: a group of students who enter ninth grade together is tracked, with transfers in and out adjusted accordingly. The rate is the share of that cohort earning a regular high school diploma within four years. It is the same calculation every state uses, which means Tennessee rates are directly comparable to other states.
Filter by school, district, or county. Toggle between graduation rate, dropout rate, and Ready Graduate rate. The map shows the spatial distribution across all 95 counties.
Tennessee high schools binned by four-year adjusted cohort rate.
Hamilton County · Hamilton County
Knox County · Knox County
Blount County · Blount County
Cheatham County · Cheatham County
Lincoln County · Fayetteville
Marshall County · Marshall County
Smith County · Smith County
Sumner County · Sumner County
Rutherford County · Rutherford County
Wilson County · Wilson County
Lauderdale County · Lauderdale County
Houston County · Houston County
The four-year adjusted cohort method is exact, public, and standardized nationally. Understanding the four moving parts below is the key to reading any school’s number honestly.
Students who enter ninth grade together form a cohort. Transfers in are added; transfers out, emigrations, and deaths are removed. The rate measures who finishes within four years.
Only students earning a regular high school diploma count toward the graduation rate. Special-education certificates and later GEDs are excluded from the on-time figure.
Students must graduate within four years of starting ninth grade to count in the on-time rate. Five- and six-year rates are reported separately by the state.
All data comes from the annual Tennessee Report Card, published each fall for the prior school year. Schools cannot self-report or appeal the cohort calculation.
A Ready Graduate earns a regular high school diploma and meets at least one of these benchmarks: ACT 21 or higher, SAT 1060 or higher, four Early Postsecondary Opportunities, two EPSOs plus work-based learning, an industry certification, or military enlistment. Ready Graduate is Tennessee’s primary measure of college and career readiness.
Tennessee graduates roughly nine in ten students on time but only prepares about four in ten of them for what comes next. The diploma is a baseline credential; readiness measures whether students leave high school with the skills, scores, or credentials to succeed in college, career, or military service.
The dropout rate captures students who left school without earning a regular diploma and without transferring to another school. Tennessee uses an annual dropout calculation: the share of students in grades 9 to 12 who drop out in a given year, rather than a four-year cohort dropout rate.
Yes. Every public high school in Tennessee, including charters and alternative schools, produces a graduation rate. Small-enrollment alternative schools may have suppressed rates to protect privacy when fewer than ten students fall into the cohort.
Graduation, dropout, and Ready Graduate rates come from the Tennessee Department of Education Report Card, published annually each fall for the prior school year.
Small-cohort schools may have suppressed rates to protect privacy when fewer than ten students fall into the cohort. The on-time rate excludes students who earn diplomas in five or six years; those students appear in the five- and six-year extended cohort rates the state also publishes.
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