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Magnet schools lead Tennessee’s 2027 public school rankings; charter leaders cluster in Memphis and Nashville
Merrol Hyde Magnet School topped the elementary list, while Murfreesboro’s Central Magnet School ranked first among middle schools in U.S. News’ new statewide rankings. The rankings assess state test results alongside student demographic data, but education experts caution families not to use them as the sole measure of a school.
Tennessee’s highest-ranked public elementary and middle schools for 2027 include academic magnets, neighborhood schools and charter schools, according to rankings released Oct. 20 by U.S. News & World Report.
Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville ranked No. 1 among elementary schools. Murfreesboro’s Central Magnet School took the top spot among middle schools. The rankings are statewide this year rather than national, and include separate lists for charter schools.
The elementary top 10 was led by four academic magnets: Merrol Hyde, McFadden School of Excellence and Discovery School in Murfreesboro, and Thurman Francis Arts Academy in Smyrna. Franklin’s Clovercroft Elementary was the highest-ranked traditional school, at No. 5. The remaining traditional schools on the list are in Germantown, Brentwood, Collierville and Signal Mountain.
Among middle schools, Central Magnet was followed by Merrol Hyde and Thurman Francis Arts Academy. Nashville’s Meigs Middle and Martin Luther King Junior School ranked fourth and fifth. The list also included three traditional middle schools in Brentwood and T.W. Hunter Middle School in Hendersonville. Johnson City’s University School, a public laboratory school partnered with East Tennessee State University, placed No. 10.
The charter rankings were concentrated in the state’s two largest cities. East End Preparatory School in Nashville ranked first among charter elementary schools, followed by Leadership Preparatory Charter School in Memphis. Memphis schools filled most of the remaining elementary spots, with two Nashville schools also in the top 10. Valor Voyager Academy in Nashville ranked first among charter middle schools; Memphis Rise Academy and Chattanooga Preparatory School placed third and fourth.
Charter schools are publicly funded and free to attend, but are operated by nonprofit governing bodies. U.S. News evaluated roughly 70,000 schools nationwide using student performance in math and reading or language arts on state tests, along with student demographic data. The organization says its formula weighs test scores and results in the context of socioeconomic characteristics equally; ties are broken using student-teacher ratios.
Rankings offer one way to compare schools, but they do not capture every factor that matters to families. Education experts recommend also considering a school’s programs, location, demographics and teacher quality. Martin Luther King Junior School, for example, is phasing out its middle grades and is scheduled to serve only grades 9-12 beginning in the 2027-28 school year, despite appearing in this year’s middle-school rankings.