2025 District Accountability

In accordance with Tennessee's accountability system, as well as federal and state law, the Tennessee Department of Education names districts that are excelling, as well as those who need additional support.

Under Tennessee’s accountability system, districts are expected to increase achievement levels for all students and demonstrate student growth across all student groups. Districts are assessed on their performance across six critical performance indicators measured through multiple pathways. The indicators include Grade Band Success Rates, rates at which students are Chronically Out of School, performance on the English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA), and Graduation rates. District accountability scores are calculated using a weighted average of the district’s scores across all indicators and student groups to determine a district’s designation. The five possible district designations are Exemplary, Advancing, Satisfactory, Marginal, and In Need of Improvement. For more information about how district accountability designations are determined, please see the 2024-25 Federal Accountability Protocol.

District Designations

On Friday, November 21, 2025, all individual district designations were approved by the State Board of Education pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-1-602.

The following are 2024-25 district designation key highlights:

• Fourteen districts received Exemplary designation. Districts designated as exemplary received an overall score equal to or greater than 3.1.
• 100 districts received Advancing designation. Districts designated for advancing received an overall score equal to or greater than 2.1 but less than 3.1.
• Twenty-one districts received Satisfactory designation. Districts designated as satisfactory received an overall score equal to or greater than 1.1 but less than 2.1.
• None of the districts received Marginal designation. Districts designated as marginal received an overall score of less than 1.1.
• Eight districts received In Need of Improvement designation. Districts receive an in need of improvement determination if their overall score falls in the bottom five percent of all districts. Districts are labeled in need of improvement regardless of what determination that score would earn according to the scale above. That is, an overall score in the bottom five percent takes precedence over the scale listed above for assigning overall determinations.

Download the 2024-25 district designation lists.