by Lillian Avedian, Nashville Banner
June 23, 2026
Tennessee has among the most racially segregated public schools in the country, according to a new report.
“States of Segregation,” a collaboration between Brown’s Promise and the Segregation Tracking Project, ranks U.S. states based on economic and racial segregation in public schools. Tennessee ranked sixth in the nation for racial segregation and 20th for economic segregation.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation of public schools is unconstitutional. Seventy-two years after that landmark decision, school segregation is on the rise nationwide. Tennessee is just one of 21 states where racial segregation has increased since 1991.
The project used data from the 2023-24 school year to track racial segregation (between white students and Black, Hispanic and Native American students) and economic segregation (between students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch and those who don’t).
For racial segregation, Tennessee trailed New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio. Its neighboring states ranked lower in the list, with Mississippi at 13, Alabama 18 and Kentucky 27.
Tennessee’s schools have become more segregated over the past three decades. The statewide trend in segregation between schools among white and Black students has increased from a value of .52 in 1991 to .58 in 2023. The report measured segregation on a 0-1 scale, with 1 indicating total segregation.
White and Hispanic students have seen a similar trend, from .02 in 1991 to .34 in 2023.
Davidson County schools are also becoming more segregated. Segregation between schools among white and Black students grew from .14 in 1991 to .30 in 2023.
Many Southern states fared better than regions like the Northeast and Midwest in the racial segregation rankings. Dr. Stephen Owens, director of policy and advocacy at Brown’s Promise, said this is due to the federal government’s “robust response” to legal segregation in the South.
“It’s the result of the federal government turning the screws and not allowing racial segregation to exist in the South,” he told the Banner.
Still, Tennessee is one of the “worst offenders” in the nation. He contrasted Tennessee to other Southern states like Florida, which has large school districts that cut across racially homogenous neighborhoods.
“A lot of people in Tennessee see the value of lessening the role of district lines,” he said, pointing to the growth of school choice programs such as charter schools and vouchers.
Yet these programs don’t come with protections to ensure that all students, such as English learners, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities, have equal access to enrollment, he said. Private schools that receive voucher funds, for example, can expel students based on their religion or sexual orientation or decline to serve students with disabilities.
Dr. Ann Owens, a professor of sociology at UCLA and one of the project researchers, said during a webinar on June 22 that school segregation is closely linked to residential segregation. In some neighborhoods a family’s options for where to send their children to school are limited by where they live.
Many states and districts have adopted school choice policies that allow families to enroll in schools outside of their neighborhood. Even then, race can drive which schools families choose.
“Even if you account for the economic composition of school peers and various metrics of school quality, the racial composition of schools is an important determinant of where parents — especially white parents — choose to enroll their children, with many white families avoiding the schools that serve non-white, and especially Black, students,” she said.
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