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The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
While traditional media, educational organizations, and Tennessee government officials celebrate gains made in recent TCAP scores across the state, we at The Tennessee Conservative must point out how miniscule these improvements are, especially when it comes to English Language Arts (ELA).
Last week the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) released data for Grades 3-8 TCAPs and also high school end-of-course exams. The data comes from exams taken both at the end of 2024 as well as earlier in the spring of this year.
In Grades 3-8, some 166,992 students met or exceeded expectations, accounting for 38.9 percent of students in those grades, while 261,820 students – more than 60 percent – failed to meet the benchmarks for their individual grade levels. Adding in high school ELA data bumps the percentage of students meeting/exceeding expectations to 40.9 percent, just over 2 percentage points higher.
On average, compared to last year, ELA scores at the state level for grades 3 to 8 are only 1.3 percent better with approximately the same amount of painfully slow growth each year since 2022.
Looking at 3rd grade only, 41 percent of the state’s 3rd grade students were at or above grade level last year. Now finished with 4th grade, 47.8 percent, still less than half, of that same cohort are meeting or exceeding expectations. These are the students who began Kindergarten in the 2020-2021 school year, amidst the chaos of Covid. While a step in the right direction, a look at the TCAP data for ELA for older students is discouraging.
Students who scored at or above grade level this school year in 5th grade – 40.7 percent, in 6th grade – 39.5 percent, in 7th grade – 34.3 percent, and in 8th grade – a measly 29.6 percent. With barely 3 out of 10 students proficient in reading and writing heading to high school in the fall, the praise for “improvement” seems premature at best.
Looking under the Elementary, Middle, and High School Results tab, the numbers show that statewide, 43.4 percent of Elementary students were found proficient, compared to 34.5 percent of Middle School students. That number rises to 46.8 percent in high school, less than half of all publicly educated Tennessee high school students.
When broken down by community, schools in Tennessee suburbs fared the best, with 50.2 percent of all ELA scores meeting/exceeding benchmarks, followed by rural schools at 44.2 percent, town schools at 37.5 percent, and city schools at 35.5 percent.
From tallying numbers on the state’s website, it appears 569,250 students in grades 3 to 12 participated in the mandatory testing. Of these, just 6,950 students with disabilities met or exceeded ELA expectations, less than 10 percent of the 72,202 students with disabilities who were tested.
Under Student Group Results, of the 40.9 percent of students found to be proficient, just over half, 23.8 percent, were documented as “economically disadvantaged” and another 17.5 percent as “English Learners.” The number of English Learners across the state in grades 3 to 12 who were tested comes to just under 50,000 students.According to PublicSchoolReview.com, the top five school districts in Tennessee are Williamson County Schools, Collierville Schools, Maryville Schools, Germantown Schools, and Johnson City Schools.
Williamson County is well above the state average with 70.4 percent overall in ELA proficiency for all grades tested. Collierville is 70.6 percent. Germantown is 70.5 percent. Maryville is 65.5 percent. Johnson City comes in at 60.9 percent.
Per pupil expenditures are similar across these five districts with Maryville spending the least at $11,837.41 per student, and Johnson City spending the most at $13,637.01. Williamson County’s funding differs from the other four districts in that almost 65 percent of funding comes from local sources, with just under a third coming from the state. The other four districts receive closer to half of their funding from the state.
Of these five, only one, Collierville, is ranked as an Exemplary district, which is the highest distinction given by the state.
There are a total of 10 Exemplary districts. These are:
Of these, only one, Arlington, had a high percentage of proficient ELA students at 70.1 percent. The rest ranged from 56.9 percent to below the state average at 36.2 percent.
Of the “In Need of Improvement” districts, the lowest ranked in the state, Hardeman County Schools had just 25.3 percent of students who tested proficient, and Johnson County Schools had 25.5 percent. Humboldt City Schools had no data for 2025 but in 2024 had just 11.5 percent of students meeting benchmark standards.
In the three grand divisions of the state, overall ELA proficiency for Knox County Schools was 45 percent, in Metro Nashville Public Schools – 31.8 percent, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools at the bottom of the barrel with 24.6 percent.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
