Charter & Alternative-LEA Schools
Charter and alternative-LEA schooling in Memphis is split across four separate authorizers, each with its own oversight regime — two charter authorizers (MSCS and the TN Public Charter School Commission) and two non-charter LEAs (the Achievement School District and University Schools) that also operate schools outside the traditional district structure. Within MSCS, schools split further into traditional (zoned) and charter, MSCS’s own governance distinction. School-level TCAP ELA and Math proficiency, 2024-25, joined to governance by TDOE school ID — never by name, since school names drift between sources. Grades 3–8 composites take precedence; schools without them use tested-student-weighted EOC composites (English I/II for ELA, Algebra I/II and Geometry for Math). The two assessment populations are never blended.
MSCS — Traditional
151 schools
85,913 students enrolled, 2024-25
All schools on the MSCS roster, from TDOE’s enrollment files. 146 of them have TCAP results below.
Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ traditional, zoned schools — no charter operator.
MSCS — Charter
55 schools
19,944 students enrolled, 2024-25
MSCS authorizes and directly oversees its own charter portfolio.
ASD
3 schools
A state-run turnaround district being wound down. This 2024-25 data still shows Hillcrest High and Kirby Middle under ASD; both return to MSCS at the start of the 2026-27 school year, and Wooddale Middle has since moved to the TN Public Charter School Commission — ASD is not expected to authorize any Memphis schools going forward.
TN Charter Commission
6 schools
A statewide charter authorizer. Only its Memphis-located schools are shown here — its district-wide totals also include Nashville and Murfreesboro schools and are never used as a Memphis figure.
University Schools
3 schools
The University of Memphis became its own LEA under Tennessee’s first Innovative School District law, moving these schools out of MSCS. Not a charter authorizer — U of M operates these schools directly.
MSCS traditional vs. MSCS charter, 2024-25
| Students, Oct. 1 | Avg. ELA | Avg. Math | TVAAS Level 4/5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional (zone) | 85,913 | 25.1% | 24.1% | 39% |
| Charter19% of MSCS enrollment | 19,944 | 23.1% | 25.9% | 56.4% |
Students are TDOE’s October 1 enrollment counts for 2024-25, summed over schools on the current MSCS roster. They are not the 40th-day counts in MSCS’s authorizer report, so the two will differ. Earlier years in the downloadable data undercount slightly because schools that have since closed are not included.
Same authorizer (MSCS), same TDOE files, split by each school’s governance type — the one apples-to-apples traditional-vs-charter comparison this dashboard can make. Not a proxy for the TN Public Charter School Commission, ASD, or University Schools, which MSCS does not authorize.
67 schools · 2024-25 · All students
| School | Sector | ELA proficiency | Math proficiency | TVAAS growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrow Academy of Excellence | MSCS — Charter | 8.8% | 26.5% | Level 3 |
| Aurora Collegiate Academy | MSCS — Charter | 23.4% | 35.2% | Level 4 |
| Beacon College Preparatory | MSCS — Charter | 23.3% | 15.7% | Level 1 |
| Believe Memphis Academy Charter School | MSCS — Charter | 8.5% | 6.6% | Level 1 |
| Bluff City High School | TN Charter Commission | No data | No data | Level 5 |
| Campus School | University Schools | 79.6% | 72.7% | Level 4 |
| Circles Of Success Learning Academy | MSCS — Charter | 26.3% | 19.8% | Level 1 |
| City University School Girls Preparatory | MSCS — Charter | 21.4% | 14.3% | Level 5 |
| City University School of Independence | MSCS — Charter | No data | No data | Level 3 |
| City University School Of Liberal Arts | MSCS — Charter | No data | No data | Level 5 |
| Compass Community School Berclair Campus | MSCS — Charter | 30.5% | 38.2% | Level 5 |
| Compass Community School Binghampton Campus | MSCS — Charter | 21.5% | 19.2% | Level 3 |
| Compass Community School Frayser Campus | MSCS — Charter | 26.6% | 35.2% | Level 5 |
| Compass Community School Hickory Hill Campus | MSCS — Charter | 36.4% | 43.8% | Level 4 |
| Compass Community School Midtown Campus | MSCS — Charter | No data | No data | Level 5 |
| Compass Community School Orange Mound Campus | MSCS — Charter | 20.1% | 11.3% | Level 3 |
| Cornerstone Prep - Lester | TN Charter Commission | 22.9% | 20.4% | Level 5 |
| Cornerstone Prep Denver Campus | TN Charter Commission | 30.7% | 41.5% | Level 5 |
| Crosstown High School | MSCS — Charter | No data | No data | Level 3 |
| Freedom Prep Elementary - Millbranch | MSCS — Charter | 47.9% | 35% | Level 5 |
| Freedom Prep Elementary - Parkrose | MSCS — Charter | 27.3% | 25.7% | Level 5 |
| Freedom Prep Middle - Brownlee | MSCS — Charter | 20.1% | 25.7% | Level 5 |
| Freedom Preparatory Academy Flagship | MSCS — Charter | 8.8% | 19.2% | Level 5 |
| Granville T. Woods Academy of Innovation Charter School | MSCS — Charter | 15.7% | 13.8% | Level 3 |
| Hillcrest High School | ASD | No data | No data | Level 2 |
| Journey Coleman K-8 | MSCS — Charter | 16.6% | 15.3% | Level 5 |
| Journey East Academy | MSCS — Charter | 39.9% | 38.1% | Level 4 |
| KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary | MSCS — Charter | 32.2% | 26.8% | Level 5 |
| KIPP Memphis Collegiate High School | MSCS — Charter | No data | No data | Level 3 |
| KIPP Memphis Collegiate Middle | MSCS — Charter | 14.5% | 22.3% | Level 3 |
| Kirby Middle School | ASD | Suppressed | Suppressed | Level 1 |
| Leadership Preparatory Charter School | MSCS — Charter | 34.3% | 43.9% | Level 4 |
| Lester Prep | TN Charter Commission | 7% | 11.2% | Level 2 |
| Libertas | TN Charter Commission | 35.4% | 33.3% | Level 5 |
| Memphis Academy Of Science Engineering Middle/High | MSCS — Charter | 13.4% | 18.6% | Level 5 |
| Memphis Business Academy Elementary School | MSCS — Charter | 34.1% | 33.3% | Level 4 |
| Memphis Business Academy Hickory Hill Elementary School | MSCS — Charter | 34.6% | 40.5% | Level 5 |
| Memphis Business Academy Hickory Hill Middle School | MSCS — Charter | 17.5% | 29.7% | Level 5 |
| Memphis Business Academy High School | MSCS — Charter | No data | No data | Level 3 |
| Memphis Business Academy Middle | MSCS — Charter | 17.6% | 18.9% | Level 5 |
| Memphis College Preparatory | MSCS — Charter | 9.6% | 12.1% | Level 1 |
| Memphis Delta Preparatory | MSCS — Charter | 13.3% | 6.2% | Level 5 |
| Memphis Grizzlies Preparatory Charter School | MSCS — Charter | 20.5% | 36.6% | Level 5 |
| Memphis Merit Academy | MSCS — Charter | 16.7% | 13.2% | Level 2 |
| Memphis Rise Academy | MSCS — Charter | 24.2% | 53.1% | Level 5 |
| Memphis School of Excellence | MSCS — Charter | 11.8% | 18.8% | Level 3 |
| Memphis School of Excellence Cordova | MSCS — Charter | 23.4% | 15.4% | Level 3 |
| Memphis School of Excellence Elementary | MSCS — Charter | 15.2% | 15.7% | Level 2 |
| Memphis School of Excellence Elementary Cordova | MSCS — Charter | 25.1% | 31.1% | Level 3 |
| Memphis STEM Academy | MSCS — Charter | 39.6% | 57.8% | Level 5 |
| Perea Elementary School | MSCS — Charter | 47% | 29.1% | Level 5 |
| Power Center Academy Elementary - Southeast | MSCS — Charter | 42.2% | 41.1% | Level 3 |
| Power Center Academy Elementary School | MSCS — Charter | 31.8% | 38% | Level 5 |
| Power Center Academy High School | MSCS — Charter | No data | No data | Level 5 |
| Power Center Academy Middle | MSCS — Charter | 19.7% | 29.9% | Level 5 |
| Power Center Academy Middle - Southeast | MSCS — Charter | 21.8% | 16% | Level 5 |
| Promise Academy | MSCS — Charter | 22.4% | 39.7% | Level 2 |
| Promise Academy Spring Hill | TN Charter Commission | 21.3% | 26.8% | Level 4 |
| Soulsville Charter School | MSCS — Charter | 13.8% | 16.6% | Level 4 |
| Southern Avenue Charter School Of Academic Excellence Creati | MSCS — Charter | 36.8% | 26.1% | Level 3 |
| Star Academy | MSCS — Charter | 23.2% | 29.9% | Level 5 |
| University High School | University Schools | No data | No data | Level 5 |
| University Middle School | University Schools | 69.5% | 62.5% | Level 1 |
| Veritas College Preparatory | MSCS — Charter | 9% | 7.5% | Level 3 |
| Vision Preparatory Charter School | MSCS — Charter | 14% | 11.1% | Level 1 |
| Westside Middle | MSCS — Charter | 5.3% | Suppressed | Level 2 |
| Wooddale Middle School | ASD | 9.3% | 8.3% | Level 1 |
Charter School Locations
55 MSCS charter schools mapped from verified coordinates. 12 schools from other authorizers (ASD, TN Charter Commission, University Schools) aren't mapped yet — their addresses haven't been verified and geocoded, a separate data gap from the academic figures above.
Data gap: school-level lag
Tennessee has not yet published a newer school-level assessment file beyond 2024-25 — this series runs one year behind the district-wide KPIs shown elsewhere on this dashboard, which use the current district-level file.
Data gap: 10 schools have no proficiency components
These schools have neither a grades 3–8 “All Grades” composite nor EOC course components that can form a 2024-25 proficiency row: Bluff City High School, City University School Of Liberal Arts, City University School of Independence, Compass Community School Midtown Campus, Crosstown High School, Hillcrest High School, KIPP Memphis Collegiate High School, Memphis Business Academy High School, Power Center Academy High School, University High School. This is a true source absence. It is distinct from suppression: if Tennessee reports any EOC component as suppressed, the derived subject composite is also shown as suppressed rather than dropping those students from the calculation.
Data gap: MSCS’s own oversight scorecards
MSCS’s School Performance Scorecard, Operations Scorecard, Financial Scorecard, and re-enrollment rates exist only in its own authorizer report, MSCS-authorized schools only. Publishing them here needs table-shaped PDF extraction this dashboard’s toolkit does not yet have — tracked as open, upstream work on this dashboard’s roadmap.
Source: TDOE School Assessment Files, 2024-25; enrollment from TDOE School Profile files, October 1, 2024-25. Grades 3–8 subject composites are used when available. Otherwise, EOC course results are weighted by valid-test counts: English I/II for ELA and Algebra I/II/Geometry for Math. Suppressed cells (fewer than 10 tested students, or source-bounded proficiency values) remain “Suppressed” and are never estimated, excluded, or shown as zero.