Each year, the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) provides an important snapshot of student performance across our state — including in public charter schools, which serve approximately 45,000 students statewide. This year’s TCAP results show that overall proficiency rates in Tennessee’s charter sector remained relatively steady, but statewide averages tell only part of the story. Across Tennessee, charter schools are showing important bright spots — including strong performance among economically disadvantaged students, gains in specific local sectors, and examples of schools narrowing long-standing achievement gaps.
On average, charters enroll higher proportions of students of color and economically disadvantaged students than the state’s traditional public schools and the sector plays an important role in helping to close historic achievement gaps. Compared to 2024-25, charter students in grades 3-8 improved slightly in English language arts (ELA) and saw a small decline in math. Beneath the overall results, though, we see encouraging examples of charter schools across the state continuing to show strong performance, with economically disadvantaged students in charter schools outperforming their peers in noncharter schools.
Within the 2025-26 TCAP data, evidence from across the sector demonstrates the positive impact Tennessee’s charter schools are having on students, especially those from historically underserved groups. Economically disadvantaged student performance in charter schools continues to outpace performance of noncharter peers. In 2026, statewide proficiency for economically disadvantaged students in charter schools reached 21% in ELA and 23.1% in math, while proficiency for their noncharter peers remained below 20% in both subjects.
Tennessee’s two largest charter sectors, Memphis and Nashville, served as bright spots in this year’s data, with charter students in both cities continuing the positive trend of recent years. In Nashville, charter students outperformed their noncharter peers by about 4 percentage points in ELA (34.1% vs. 29.9%) and 5 percentage points in math (36.6% vs. 31.3%). In Memphis, charter students continued to outpace their noncharter peers in math (24.6% vs. 24.0%), while also closing the gap between charter students and noncharter students in ELA (23.3% vs. 26.2%).
Improvement was not limited to the state’s two largest charter sectors. Charter performance also improved in Knoxville, where the sector is much smaller but also serves higher percentages of students from historically underserved groups than traditional public schools in the district. In 2026, economically disadvantaged students in Knoxville charter schools outscored their noncharter peers by over 7 percentage points in ELA (28.8% vs. 21.2%) and over 9 percentage points in math (28.8% vs. 19.3%).
Results from the charter sector also contain individual bright spots that are worth elevating, learning from, and replicating. Nashville Classical Charter School — which was recently profiled in The 74 for gains in reading proficiency — saw over 80% of its third-grade students score proficient in ELA, outpacing every single district average in ELA across Tennessee. Also in Nashville, students at Purpose Prep scored 64% and 61% proficient in ELA and math, respectively, nearly doubling the district average in Nashville for both subjects. In Memphis, Memphis Rise Academy saw 57.5% of its students proficient in math, ranking the school in the top 25% of the state in grade 3-8 math proficiency for the second year in a row — and did so while increasing proficiency by more than 4 percentage points in 2026.
Nashville Classical, Purpose Prep, and Memphis Rise Academy are examples of charter schools serving student populations with more racial and economic diversity than many of the traditional public schools with comparable TCAP scores, offering encouraging evidence that historic achievement gaps can be closed.
Further success in the state’s charter sector can be seen in the number of charter schools that performed in the top 25% of the entire state in ELA and math scores — again, a significant feat given that many of these schools serve higher proportions of students from historically underserved groups than their district peers.
These charter schools scored in the top 25% of the state in grade 3-8 ELA proficiency:
- KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary (learn more about KIPP Antioch’s ELA supports for multilingual learners)
- Memphis STEM Academy
- Nashville Classical East (learn more about how Nashville Classical improved third-grade literacy)
- Perea Elementary (learn more about Perea Elementary’s strategic staffing and instructional coherence)
- Purpose Prep (learn more about Purpose Prep’s approach to supporting teachers)
- Valor Flagship
These charter schools scored in the top 25% of the state in grade 3-8 math proficiency:
- Memphis Rise Academy (learn more about Memphis Rise Academy’s STEM education program)
- Purpose Prep
- Valor Flagship
- Valor Voyager
Tennessee’s commitment to measuring student outcomes and maintaining a sustained focus on academic achievement has been a key driver of the state’s historic progress in recent years. These TCAP results from charter schools across Tennessee highlight what’s possible when we rely on proven foundational elements like high-quality instructional materials and schoolwide implementation of instructional coherence. As we look ahead, the 2026 TCAP results remind us that progress is possible and that there is still much work to be done. By building on momentum, replicating successes within the charter sector, and addressing persistent gaps, we can ensure every student in Tennessee has the opportunity to thrive.
Trent Carlson is SCORE’s director of charter initiatives.