Shining a light on education & government in TennesseeShining a light on education & government in TennesseeTennessee assigns every public school an A through F letter grade each year. Look yours up below, or skim the methodology so the grade tells you what it actually means.
Search 1,697 schools across all 95 Tennessee counties
1,697 schools across 95 counties
Click any county to see every school and grade in that area.
Click a county to explore | Map data: Tennessee Department of Education
The Tennessee Department of Education calculates a composite score from four inputs, then maps that score to a letter. The exact mix changes by school type, but growth carries the most weight in every formula.
Performance on TCAP in ELA and math, measured against state benchmarks. Weighted differently for elementary, middle, and high schools.
Up to 30% of the compositeYear-over-year academic growth, regardless of where a student started. This is the heaviest single input. A school full of striving kids can still earn an A.
Up to 35% of the compositeWhether the students furthest behind are catching up. If they're not, the grade reflects it. The state designed this to punish averaging away the hardest students.
Up to 35% of the compositeHigh school only. Shares of graduates meeting the Ready Graduate bar (ACT, dual credit, industry credentials, or postsecondary enrollment).
High school onlyOur step-by-step guide walks through what the grade measures, why growth matters more than raw test scores, and what the report card cannot tell you about a school.
How to read your school's report cardTop tier statewide. Strong growth, high achievement, and the bottom quartile moves with the rest.
Performing above the state median. Most B schools land here on the strength of growth, not raw scores.
The largest band in Tennessee. Meeting expectations on most measures, falling short on at least one.
Underperforming on multiple measures. Districts are required to act when a school lands here.
Bottom of the state. Triggers the strongest accountability responses, including potential state intervention.
The first A through F letter grades were released in December 2024, based on the 2023 to 2024 school year. Grades are scheduled to refresh annually each fall.
A C is Satisfactory, with a composite score between 2.0 and 2.9. It's the largest single band in the state. Roughly four in ten Tennessee public schools earn a C in any given year.
Yes. Every public school in Tennessee is graded on the same scale, including charters, magnets, and the state-run Achievement School District.
It was the explicit policy goal. The legislature wanted a grade that rewarded schools for moving the kids furthest behind, not just averaging away their scores. It carries up to 35 percent of the composite, the same as overall growth.
Williamson County consistently posts the highest share of A and B schools statewide, followed by parts of Knox and Davidson. Use the search above to compare your county directly.
Letter grades and underlying composite scores come from the Tennessee Department of Education Report Card, 2023 to 2024 school year. School-level demographics, district groupings, and grade-band classifications come from the same dataset.
Some alternative schools and very-small-enrollment schools are not graded by the state. They appear here as Not Rated and are excluded from county and district averages on this page.
No. The grade tells you about test performance, growth, and college and career readiness. It does not tell you about culture, teaching quality, safety, transportation, the arts, or whether your kid will love going each morning. Treat it as one signal among several.