NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Comptroller's Office released an annual report on Wednesday exploring data on the state's education system. The report found dropout rates among Tennessee schools grew by around 2% in the 2021-2022 school year, compared to the previous year.
It found around 8.6% of all Tennessee high school students dropped out, compared to around 6.6% the year before. It found that 27 school districts had dropout rates above the state rate, and eight districts had dropout rates above 15%.
Those school districts included the Achievement School District, the Richard City School District, the Davidson County School District, the Memphis-Shelby County School District and the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. However, 12 districts in the state reported dropout rates of fewer than 1%. Those include Alcoa City Schools, Meigs County, Greeneville schools and Oneida schools.
The report also found English learners drop out at higher rates and graduate at lower rates than their peers in Tennessee.
"English learners, especially older students, may need additional time to learn English and may not graduate on time as a result," the report said.
It said in 2021-2022, English learners in Tennessee had a graduation rate of around 67.8% — 22% lower than the state rate. Students with disabilities also had a lower graduation rate in Tennessee, as well as students experiencing homelessness.
The report said 3,660 English learners were part of the graduation cohort in Tennessee, and only around 2,482 students graduated. There were 2,534 students experiencing homelessness in the cohort, and 1,837 graduated.
English learners also saw a high dropout rate, ranking at around 30%, according to the report. Rutherford County schools, which include areas like Murfreesboro, saw the lowest dropout rate among English learners out of the state's largest school districts, at around 10%. Other school districts saw dropout rates ranging from 41.7% to around 32.2%.
"Higher dropout rates among English learner students (including students whose home languages are Spanish, Arabic, and Kurdish, among others) have been identified in Tennessee as well as nationally," the report said.
The report discussed nuances between types of English learners, such as ones who were born in the U.S. and some who arrived as immigrants or refugees. It said four-year graduation rates for newcomer English learner students were 33.8% lower than long-term proficient English learner students.
"One of the report’s conclusions is that efforts to reduce the dropout rate should take into account differences within the English learner student population. The report suggests that, currently, national data does not capture the variation in dropout and graduation rates for different types of English learner students, but examining data for subgroups for English learner students may be helpful in identifying particular areas of support," the report said.