2025 School Accountability

In accordance with Tennessee's accountability system, as well as federal and state law, the Tennessee Department of Education has levels of support, known as school designations, for schools that need additional support and resources.

Schools serving K-8 students are evaluated on four indicators, including achievement on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) assessments, TCAP assessment growth over time, rates at which students are Chronically Out of School, and performance on the English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA). High schools, in addition to these four indicators, are also evaluated on Graduation Rate and Ready Graduate Rate, or the rate at which students graduate while also having achieved milestones associated with college and career readiness.

There are three types of federal designations: Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), and Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). Schools are identified for CSI, also known as Priority schools per Tennessee state laws, when they exhibit low student performance by falling in the bottom five percent of performance or by having a graduation rate less than 67 percent. Schools are identified for TSI when they exhibit low student group performance by falling in the bottom five percent of overall performance for any student group. Lastly, schools are identified for ATSI when any of their student groups on their own would lead to identification for CSI (20 U.S.C. § 6311(d)(2)(C)). Both TSI and ATSI are also known as Focus schools by Tennessee state laws (see T.C.A. § 49-1-602(b)). Starting 2024-25, an ATSI school can become a CSI/Priority school if the school was identified as ATSI for a given student group in 2022-23, has yet to meet any of the ATSI exit criteria; and is identified as ATSI for the same student group in 2024-25 (i.e., ATSI to CSI/Priority pathway) (20 U.S.C. § 6311(d)(3)(A)(i)).

Schools identified for federal designations receive comprehensive, targeted, or additional targeted support from the department depending on their designation. Schools receive this support upon receipt of the designation until they exit the designation. For more information about how federal accountability designations are determined, please see the 2024-25 Federal Accountability Protocol.

In addition, schools are recognized as a Reward school per Tennessee state laws when they demonstrate high levels of performance and/or improvement in performance by meeting their annual measurable objectives across performance indicators and student groups (see T.C.A. § 49-1-602(b)(5)).

The 2024-25 school year was an identification year since the last identification in 2022-23.

School Designations

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

The following are 2024-25 school designations key highlights:

• 459 schools received Reward designation. In Tennessee, schools are recognized as a Reward school when they demonstrate high levels of performance and/or improvement in performance. In 2024-25, schools earn Reward status based on their performance on the federal accountability system—A school is recognized as a Reward school when (1) it has an overall school score of 3.1 or higher per federal accountability calculation; and (2) is not identified as a CSI/Priority, TSI, or ATSI.
• 108 schools received CSI/Priority designation. 10 schools identified as CSI in 2023 exited status in 2025. CSI/Priority schools are identified when they exhibit low student performance by falling in the bottom five percent of performance or by having a graduation rate less than 67%. Starting 2024-25, an ATSI school can become a CSI/Priority school if the school was identified as ATSI for a given student group in 2022-23, has yet to meet any of the ATSI exit criteria; and is identified as ATSI for the same student group in 2024-25 (i.e., ATSI to CSI/Priority pathway). CSI/Priority schools are identified based on the identification timeline specified in the annual accountability protocol. CSI/Priority schools are eligible for exit evaluation annually. Access the percentile cuts for CSI/Priority exit evaluation.
• 163 schools received TSI designation. Schools with overall school scores in the bottom five percent statewide for the performance of a given student group are identified as TSI schools. Schools can be identified as TSI schools for any of the following given student groups when meeting the identification criteria: Black/Hispanic/Native American, Economically Disadvantaged, English Learners, Students with Disabilities, Hispanic/Latino, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Asian, and White. TSI schools are identified annually. A school can be identified as a TSI for a given student group but is not presented in the table if the school’s final designation is ATSI.
• Fifty-eight schools received ATSI designation, while 11 schools identified as ATSI in the prior identification cycle exited status in 2025. Only schools identified as TSI based on the most recent TSI list will be eligible for ATSI identification. TSI schools whose student group success rates are less than or equal to the maximum success rate of any CSI school in their school pool will be identified as ATSI if they do not also have a score of 4 or 3 for each indicator for which that student group is eligible. Additionally, TSI schools with a graduation rate for a given student group less than 67 percent receive ATSI. ATSI schools are identified based on the identification timeline specified in the annual accountability protocol. ATSI schools are eligible for exit evaluation annually. Access the  percentile cuts for ATSI exit evaluation.

Download the 2024-25 school designation lists.