PRESS RELEASE
May 13, 2026
Contact: Sam Stockwell
samuel_stockwell@gse.harvard.edu
617.495.0342
Tennessee Ranks 2nd in Math and 4th in Reading Recovery Among States, Among the Top Performers in the Nation
Tennessee students are virtually back to 2019 levels in math—one of the most complete recoveries in the country.
Top-5 rankings in both subjects make Tennessee a national model for post-pandemic academic recovery.
Districts like Johnson City, Putnam County, White County, and Maury County are outperforming their peers in both math and reading, while Memphis-Shelby and Montgomery County remain the state’s most significant recovery challenge.
(May 13, 2026) In its fourth year, the Education Scorecard (a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and faculty at Dartmouth College) is issuing its annual report on district-level student growth in math and reading.
The latest report provides a high-resolution picture of where Tennessee students’ academic recovery stands, combining state test results for roughly 35 million grade 3–8 students nationwide with national assessment data to describe changes in local communities. Here’s what we found in Tennessee:
- Tennessee ranks 2nd out of 38 states in academic growth in math and 4th out of 35 states in reading between 2022 and 2025.
- In math, the average student is performing about .43 grade equivalents above their 2022 level, but about .06 grade equivalents below 2019 levels. Still, some districts like Montgomery, Memphis-Shelby Schools, and Tipton continue to lag behind 2019 levels.
- In reading, the average student is performing about .18 grade equivalents above their 2022 level, but about .28 grade equivalents below 2019 levels. A number of districts like Montgomery, Memphis-Shelby Schools, and Tipton continue to slip and remain behind their 2019 levels.
- Several Tennessee districts are emerging as Districts on the Rise. These districts have shown unusual progress relative to similar districts in their own state. A core group of districts is excelling in both math and reading, with districts like Johnson City, Putnam County, White County, and Maury County outperforming their peers.
- Several other districts are rising relative to their peers in one subject—either math or reading. Sullivan County, Germantown, and Anderson County are leading the way in math performance, while Arlington, Grainger County, and Greeneville are leading the way in reading.
- Statewide, there is some good news on chronic absenteeism (students missing more than 10% of a school year), which has fallen from about 20% in 2022 to 18% in 2025. However, chronic absence rates still remain about 5 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.
- Tennessee received about $3.86 billion in federal pandemic relief for K–12 schools—roughly $3,900 per student. Our analysis finds the gains in many high-poverty districts were driven by this federal support. Unfortunately, many middle-poverty districts (those with 30 to 70 percent of students receiving federal lunch subsidies) received little federal aid. Now that the federal relief is gone, Tennessee should focus school improvement dollars on the middle and higher poverty districts that remain behind their pre-pandemic levels.
“The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion in student achievement,” said Professor Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. “The ‘learning recession’ started a decade ago, after policymakers switched off the early warning system of test-based accountability and social media took over children’s lives. In this report, we highlight the work of a small group of state leaders who have started digging out by changing how students learn to read, and 108 local school districts that are finding ways to get students learning again. The recovery of U.S. education has begun. But it’s up to the rest of us to spread it.”
District on the Rise: Johnson City Schools
Among Tennessee’s Districts on the Rise, Johnson City Schools stands out for building a system of instructional support that has compounded over two decades. Since 2005, the district has grown an instructional coaching program from one academic coach to 19, now spanning ELA, math, science, RTI, CTE, SPED, ESL, and instructional technology—providing ongoing, job-embedded support to teachers at every experience level. For roughly 20 years, the district has used checkpoints, benchmarks, and formative assessments to give teachers early and frequent data months before state tests, paired with coaching so instruction can be adjusted well before results are locked in. Tennessee’s TEAM evaluation system is used as a structured feedback loop connecting observations and student data directly to coaching and next steps, while collaboration time is protected across every grade span, from high school “learning labs” to elementary master schedules built around common planning. That long-standing infrastructure made Johnson City unusually well-positioned to implement the science of reading: the district embedded literacy reform into the same coaching, evaluation, and formative assessment systems it had used for years, ensuring it became daily classroom practice rather than an isolated initiative. The district entered the pandemic with one-to-one devices already in place and used ESSER funds to deepen—not build—that foundation, expanding effective digital tools, reducing class sizes in key grades, and funding targeted tutoring with transportation. A 15-year mental health model—dedicating 1–2% of the budget to ensure each school has a counselor, case manager, and therapist—rounds out an approach that addresses the whole student. For the full case study, click here.
“Johnson City Schools has maintained a high level of achievement that can be attributed to several factors that have been synchronized over time,” said Erin Slater, Superintendent of Johnson City Schools. “Our motto, ‘Expect the Best!’ is lived every day. It has created a long-term culture of learning with high expectations, which fosters our continuous improvement cycle. This accountability is shared by the Board of Education, district leadership, building leadership, and our staff. Engaging classroom instruction delivered by our high-quality teachers and supported by building staff, combined with partnerships from a strong community, city commission, business, industry, and our families, has sustained our high level of achievement.”
