The Memphis charter sector has seen dramatic improvements in the math performance of its students and offers a replicable example for schools across Tennessee.
Today, 65 charter schools are open in Memphis and serve approximately 20% of all public school students in the city. Academic growth — as measured by the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) — has long been a strength of the Memphis charter sector, and in 2024-25, Memphis’ charter schools earned TVAAS level 4’s and 5’s, indicating greater than expected student academic growth, at a higher rate than their noncharter district and state peers. Student proficiency, however, has historically remained a challenge. Yet, over the past four years, the Memphis charter sector has taken several collective steps that are altering the trajectory of math performance for elementary and middle school students across the city.
A New Trajectory
In 2021, during the first state assessment window following pandemic school closures, only 8% of Memphis charter students scored proficient on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) grade 3-8 math assessments, trailing their noncharter district peers by eight percentage points. Four years later, that gap was erased; Memphis charter students now outperform their district peers, reaching 26% proficiency compared to 24% for noncharter students.
Since the 2021 baseline, Memphis charter schools have seen an 18-percentage point jump in math proficiency — more than double the rate of increase seen in local noncharter schools over the same period. This rapid progress is validated by independent research from the University of Kentucky and the University of Southern California, which found that Memphis charter students gained an additional 47 days (2.2 months) of learning in math during the 2022-23 school year compared to their traditional public school counterparts.
Driving the improvement in math outcomes among Memphis charter schools is the performance of Black, Hispanic, and Native American (BHN) students and economically disadvantaged (ED) students. Charter schools in Memphis serve a slightly higher percentage of both BHN and ED students than the city’s noncharters, and on 2025 TCAP exams, both BHN and ED students in Memphis charters outperformed their noncharter peers in math.
With these academic gains, Memphis charter schools are proving a powerful point: The trajectory of math performance can change, and achievement gaps can close. And, crucially, this type of positive, sustained growth does not happen by accident. It is the result of focused and concerted effort, commitment to high-quality curriculum and strong instruction, and responsiveness to student data. Most exciting of all, these results are replicable.
The Memphis School Leader Collaborative (MSLC)
One example of the work can be seen through the Teach Like A Champion (TLAC) Memphis math cohort. In response to postpandemic declines in math, instructional coaches and math teachers from eight Memphis charter networks collaborated with TLAC to form the Memphis School Leader Collaborative (MSLC). With the support of local education organizations, the MSLC launched a citywide collaborative focused on best practices for planning and delivering high-quality math instruction.
The results suggest that sustained improvement is possible when schools align around high-quality materials, strong instruction, and continuous improvement. Seventy percent of MSLC schools saw improvements in their overall math performance from the 2023-24 school year to the 2024-25 school year. Notably, more than half of the cohort saw their overall math performance increase by five percentage points or more.
While individual success stories can be seen across the Memphis charter sector, there are a few schools whose math performance stands out.
What It Takes: Action Steps for Schools
The strategy employed by schools in the MSLC cohort is clear and replicable. All schools across Tennessee, regardless of school type or grade band, can follow these action steps and continue driving improvement in math performance for students.
- Adopt high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). Schoolwide instructional coherence is an essential component of improving academic outcomes for students, and adopting HQIM is paramount.
- Establish schoolwide clarity on what a good math lesson looks like. Instructional leaders need a shared understanding of what everyone in the school will be working towards.
- Build an arc of the year for areas of focus and teacher professional development. Schools can strategically plan professional development that is responsive to the needs of students and teachers.
- Employ a lesson delivery model consistent across the building. Good lesson delivery models can be curriculum agnostic.
- Systematize teacher lesson planning. When adapting a lesson for classroom instruction, teachers should:
- Complete the student exit ticket, inclusive of all components expected in an ideal student response. Identify the knowledge and skills that students need to demonstrate mastery on the exit ticket.
- Determine highest leverage questions from the lesson that will lead to student mastery.
- Write means of student participation for each question and portion of the lesson.
- Plan checks for understanding and anticipating student errors.
- Embrace daily student data. Student data cannot only be collected and analyzed at interim assessments. Daily independent practice with teacher feedback, error analyses, and exit tickets can provide more timely and actionable data than unit or interim assessments.
The lessons learned from the MSLC cohort, and from schools like Memphis Rise Academy, Memphis STEM Academy, and Leadership Prep, can help continue the positive momentum in math performance for students across the state.
Dramatic improvement is possible when instructional coherence is in place. In just four years, the Memphis charter sector went from less than one in 10 students proficient in math to outperforming the city average. This type of sustained improvement is possible in Tennessee, and there are examples in the state worth learning from and scaling.