Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville claimed the No. 1 spot among Tennessee elementary schools in the U.S. News & World Report 2027 rankings, outpacing 689 other ranked schools statewide.

The K-12 public magnet school on Township Drive posted math proficiency at 84% and reading proficiency at 60%, according to U.S. News. Both figures rated "Well Above Expectations."

Those numbers tower over district and state averages. In Sumner County, 56% of elementary students tested proficient in math and 41% in reading, according to the U.S. News profile. Statewide, just 34% tested proficient in math and 30% in reading.

The school also ranked No. 2 among Tennessee middle schools. It earned No. 1 in the state for elementary reading proficiency and No. 2 for elementary math proficiency.

State Rep. William Lamberth, who represents the 44th House District, wrote on X on Oct. 19 that Merrol Hyde was "rocking 1st place yet again this year" and said he was "very proud of the students, teachers, staff and parents who work hard every year to achieve excellence."

Merrol Hyde serves 670 students and is the only magnet school in Sumner County. It is administered by the Sumner County Board of Education and follows the Paideia educational philosophy, according to the school's website. The school was established in 2003 and is not a charter school. All of its teachers are certified, according to U.S. News.

Sumner County Schools operates 53 schools districtwide, with 19 ranked elementary schools and 12 ranked middle schools in the U.S. News system.

How the rankings work

U.S. News based its elementary and middle school rankings on students' performance on state math and reading assessments, according to its published methodology. Half the formula measured raw proficiency scores. The other half evaluated those results in the context of students' socioeconomic backgrounds. Student-teacher ratios served as a tiebreaker. Rankings are calculated at the state level; there is no national ranking.

The assessment data comes from the 2023-2024 school year, and school profile data comes from the Common Core of Data (2025) and Civil Rights Data Collection (2023-2024), according to U.S. News.

Tennessee's top-listed elementary schools

The following schools appear at the top of the U.S. News Tennessee elementary schools page, listed in the order shown:

  1. Merrol Hyde Magnet School, Hendersonville (K-12, 670 students)
  2. McFadden School of Excellence, Murfreesboro (K-5, 386 students)
  3. Thurman Francis Arts Academy/Magnet School for the Arts, Smyrna (K-8)
  4. Discovery School, Murfreesboro (PK-6, 391 students)
  5. Clovercroft Elementary School, Franklin (K-5, 703 students)
  6. Farmington Elementary School, Germantown (PK-5, 646 students)
  7. Lipscomb Elementary, Brentwood (K-5, 532 students)
  8. Crosswind Elementary School, Collierville (K-5, 680 students)
  9. Dogwood Elementary School, Germantown (PK-5, 663 students)
  10. Nolan Elementary School, Signal Mountain (PK-5, 729 students)

Families can view the full rankings and individual school profiles at usnews.com.