Achievement School District

Tennessee received funding from the federal government to create the Achievement School District when it won Race to the Top, a United States Department of Education contest created to spur innovation and reforms in state and local district K–12 education.^[7] The Achievement School District was created to improve student achievement in Tennessee's Priority Schools—those in the bottom 5% in the state—and in so doing, increasing students' career options and life outcomes. It is modeled from principles of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Obama's Race to the Top legislation.^[8] Various states submit their budget proposals in order to receive financial support. Schools in desperate need of change are labelled as priority schools.^[5] Those priority schools are added into this school district with the goal to be eventually released back into city and state school systems.^[9] They acquire staff from programs such as the Memphis Teacher Residency and Teach for America.^[6]

However, research published by Brown University in 2024 found that ASD did not significantly improve students' test scores nor high school graduation rates.^[10] In April 2025, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed legislature to replace ASD with a tiered intervention system starting in the 2026-27 school year. This decision was made to give local school districts more control over what intervention methods to utilize.^[11]

Malika Anderson was named the superintendent of the Achievement School District in November 2015 by the Tennessee Department of Education. She was preceded by Chris Barbic, who served in the role from 2011 to 2015. The district depends on charter management organizations (CMOs) in order to run and fund these charter schools.^[12] CMOs come from various sources such as the state, national organizations, and financial donors.^[5] The Achievement School District creates autonomy for these schools to launch the programs they need.^[12]

The bottom 5% of Tennessee schools include 83 schools across Memphis, Jackson, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga.^[13][14] As of May 2025^[update], there are 3 schools in the ASD: Hillcrest High School, Kirby Middle School, and Wooddale Middle School. They are all located in Memphis and operated by IOTA Community Schools.^[1]

• Achievement Schools
• Aspire Public Schools
• Capstone Education Group
• Frayser Community Schools
• Freedom Preparatory Academy
• Gestalt Community Schools
• Green Dot Public Schools
• KIPP Memphis Collegiate Schools
• LEAD Public Schools
• Libertas School of Memphis
• Memphis Scholars
• Project GRAD
• Pathways in Education
• Promise Academy
• Rocketship Education