Tennessee Public Charter School Commission schools' comparing well with other public schools on state tests

State education officials say the schools overseen by the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission are faring well when compared to the school districts that rejected them.

The Commission serves as the authorizer to public charter schools that it approves upon appeal after local school districts deny them. This year that includes 17 charters in three counties and another four are scheduled to open in the coming years.

According to an overview of preliminary state assessment data from the 2023-24 school year provided by Tennessee Public Charter School Commission Deputy Director of Authorizing Maggie Lund and the commission's Data and Accountability Coordinator Rebecca Ledebuhr during last week's meeting, commission schools’ average student success rate in English Language Arts (ELA), math and English I and II is “generally similar to or outperforms the resident districts” of Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MCSC) and Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS).

Lund noted that “success rates” are defined as the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) exam.

She said that the preliminary results discussed last week did not include full “accountability data” on each individual charter or factor in "alternative assessments" taken by students, adding that more updates on performance data will be presented to commission officials by the fall. However, Lund said, the preliminary findings show the positive results of increased investments in public charter schools and programming geared toward improving student performance more generally in the state.

“That's huge,” Lund told board members during last week's committee meeting.

“I think we're seeing [the results of] good work,” she added. “We still have work to do but I just want to highlight this for this group.”

According to Lund, final academic performance data will be published in the commission’s annual report in January of next year. To view the commission's full preliminary charter school report, visit www.tn.gov.

The commission's report on its schools somewhat contrasts with recent findings by the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) indicating that economically disadvantaged students and students of color are facing a performance gap compared to their white and more affluent peers across charter and non-charter schools statewide. SCORE analysts found that public charter schools, which serve higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students of color, are lagging behind the state’s non-charter schools in terms of overall student performance statewide. 

Those economically disadvantaged and students of color do perform better in public charter schools than at traditional public schools in Tennessee according to research by Stanford University.