Phase I appeals opened Aug. 24 and close Sept. 4. Districts can review assessment, English-language proficiency and chronic-absence data before the first accountability files become final.
By Brandon Burley
The Redemption Project Newsroom | Education / Accountability
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The public usually encounters school accountability after the labels have already been assigned. A school receives a letter grade, a district receives a designation, the State Report Card goes live and parents, school boards and local officials begin debating what the numbers mean.
Before that happens, Tennessee gives school districts a quieter opportunity to examine some of the data behind those results and challenge information they believe is wrong.
That process is happening now.
According to the Tennessee Department of Education’s 2025-26 accountability calendar, Phase I data files were released to districts Aug. 24, the same day the appeals window opened. Appeals are due Sept. 4. The department plans to send initial responses Sept. 11, allow districts to provide remediation Sept. 14-18 and issue final responses Sept. 25, when the Phase I files become final.
It sounds administrative. It is also one of the points in Tennessee’s accountability system when local officials can still challenge the record before some of those numbers become public accountability results.
What districts are reviewing
The Phase I files include 2025-26 assessment data, including TCAP grades 2-8, end-of-course exams and alternative assessments. They also include English Language Proficiency Assessment data and Tennessee’s chronically out-of-school data.
In plain language, districts are checking test records, English learner progress and chronic absenteeism information.
Tennessee considers a student chronically absent when the student misses 10% or more of the instructional days for which the student is enrolled, regardless of whether the absences are excused or unexcused. The state calls that accountability measure the Chronically Out-of-School Indicator.
Those data matter because Tennessee’s federal accountability system evaluates schools across multiple indicators and student groups. Achievement, growth, attendance and English-language proficiency can help determine whether a school is recognized for strong performance or identified for additional support. High schools are evaluated on additional measures including graduation and college-and-career readiness.
School letter grades are related but are not identical to federal accountability designations. Tennessee’s A-F grades are based on achievement, growth and, for eligible high schools, postsecondary readiness. That means some Phase I corrections — particularly assessment-related ones — could eventually affect letter-grade calculations, while other appealed data primarily affect federal accountability.
This also is only one stage of a longer accountability process. The Aug. 24-Sept. 25 window does not finalize every component that will eventually appear on Tennessee’s State Report Card.
An appeal does not mean something went wrong
The existence of an appeal should not be treated as evidence of a scandal.
Large education datasets contain thousands of students, assessments, attendance records and school assignments. Tennessee’s appeals process gives local districts an opportunity to review those records and provide supporting documentation when they believe something should be corrected before accountability calculations are finalized.
That could involve a student attributed to the wrong school, an assessment record that does not belong in a particular calculation, attendance information affected by an allowable exception or another issue permitted under the state’s appeals rules.
The important distinction is between challenging the data and challenging an outcome because a district dislikes it.
The appeals process is designed to validate the underlying information. It is not a mechanism for asking the state to award a better grade because local officials disagree with the result.
That is why the appeal window itself should not create suspicion. It should create questions.
East Tennessee districts should be asked now
Knox County Schools, Blount County Schools, Anderson County Schools, Oak Ridge Schools, Maryville City Schools, Alcoa City Schools and other surrounding districts should be asked whether they are filing Phase I appeals before the Sept. 4 deadline.
If they are, the useful questions are straightforward: Which school or schools are involved? What type of data is being appealed? How many student records are affected? Is the dispute about attribution, missing information, an allowable exclusion or another calculation issue? And could a successful appeal materially change an accountability result?
District officials may not be able to disclose the underlying scores.
Tennessee’s accountability calendar says accountability files remain under embargo until the State Report Card release unless otherwise specified. Federal designations remain embargoed until State Board of Education approval, while school letter grades remain embargoed until the report card is released.
Those restrictions should be respected. They prevent districts from selectively releasing results before the statewide process is complete.
But respecting an embargo does not necessarily prevent a district from explaining the process itself. A school system may be able to say whether it filed an appeal, identify the general type of data involved and explain whether the dispute affects one record or a broader group without revealing an embargoed score.
That information has public value now.
Accountability starts before the grade appears
Most parents will never see Tennessee’s accountability application or an appeals form. They will see the final result.
They will see an A, B, C, D or F. They may see a Reward designation or learn that a school has been identified for additional support. Those public labels can influence perceptions of principals, teachers, neighborhoods and entire school systems.
That makes the less-visible verification process worth watching.
A district filing an appeal is not proof that Tennessee’s data are unreliable. A district filing no appeal is not proof that every record is perfect. The process is simply an opportunity to challenge specific information before it becomes part of the final accountability record.
The public does not need districts to break an embargo or prematurely announce scores.
It does need confidence that, when Tennessee publishes those scores and designations, local school systems actually examined the information behind them and used the correction process when necessary.
School accountability should not begin when a grade appears on a website.
It should begin while the record can still be checked.
The Redemption Project is tracking Phase I accountability appeals across Knox County and surrounding East Tennessee school districts through the Sept. 4 deadline and will report which districts filed appeals, what types of data were challenged and whether those disputes could materially affect final accountability results.
I am a retired detective and criminal justice / government educator based in Tennessee. I founded The Redemption Project, as a place to focus on civics, rebuild non-partisan trust, and provide educational and emotional grace while learning about the news. I also have a column in Knox TN Today. My reporting and commentary have also appeared in other outlets including; Governing, The Arizona Capitol Times, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Police1, among other state and regional outlets.
