When we look at this year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) school-level results, we see more than just numbers — we see stories of students and schools proving what’s possible. The 2025 data show real momentum in Tennessee’s public charter schools — especially for students who have long faced the steepest barriers — and challenge us to keep pushing until every student succeeds.
Accelerating Learning and Expanding Opportunity
We see this momentum in the growth of economically disadvantaged students in charter schools, whose math proficiency has climbed more than 14 percentage points since 2021 — double the gains of their peers in noncharter schools. In Knoxville, that growth is even sharper, with charter students up 8 percentage points while their peers in noncharter schools barely moved.
The momentum is also seen in the Metro Nashville area, where Black, Hispanic, and Native American (BHN) students in charters reached 30.1% proficiency in math, nearly 10 percentage points higher than their noncharter peers. In early literacy, reading proficiency for third graders in charter schools improved by 4 percentage points in just one year — more than twice the growth of noncharter students.
Momentum Meets Reality
Even with strong academic growth among charter students, achievement gaps remain across core subjects. These disparities are not unique to charters; they reflect a statewide challenge across school types. In grades 3-8, fewer than 30% of charter students are proficient in math and close to 27% are proficient in English language arts (ELA). For historically underserved groups, the path forward is even steeper. BHN students attending charter schools are outpacing their peers in places like Nashville and Memphis, yet overall proficiency remains low. Still, the gains seen this year signal that meaningful progress is within reach.
Closing these gaps will require shared responsibility. Educators, policymakers, and communities must work together to ensure every student — in every subject and grade — has the opportunity to move forward.
Looking Ahead
Every student in Tennessee — regardless of whether they attend a charter school or traditional public school — deserves the opportunity to make gains like these. That means scaling what works and making course corrections where progress has stalled.
That work requires more than data alone. It calls for the daily commitment of educators, the support of families and communities, and the leadership of policymakers who believe in what’s possible for every student. When we build on what’s working and address where gaps remain, we can extend progress beyond individual schools to every classroom, every community, and every student across Tennessee.
A note of thanks to Lawand Yaseen, SCORE’s senior data and research analyst, for the data analysis and insights highlighted here.