Original Research by School Decision on Memphis Scholars Caldwell-guthrie
Memphis Scholars Caldwell-Guthrie is a regular public charter school in Memphis, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It operates under the Achievement School District (ASD), the state-run turnaround district created to intervene in Tennessee’s lowest-performing schools. That statewide context is now in flux: in early 2025, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed legislation to dissolve the ASD and replace it with a tiered intervention system, with all remaining ASD schools returning to their local districts by the start of the 2026-27 school year. For families at Caldwell-Guthrie, that means the school will soon transfer back to Memphis-Shelby County Schools, though the exact timing and terms are still being determined. The ASD itself has contracted sharply over recent years, from more than two dozen schools to just a handful, and a 2024 Brown University study found the district did not significantly improve student test scores or graduation rates, research that informed the legislative decision to end the model.
The school’s enrollment is moderate for an elementary school, with roughly the same number of students in each grade from kindergarten through fifth grade and a very small pre-kindergarten cohort. The student body is almost entirely Black, with a very small number of white students and students identifying as two or more races. Data on the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, receiving special education services, or classified as English learners was not reported, so a parent would want to ask the school directly about the support services available for those populations.
State testing results for the 2023-24 school year in math, English language arts, and science are suppressed across all grades, which typically means the numbers were too small to report publicly under state disclosure rules. Test participation rates were high, well over 95 percent, meaning nearly all enrolled students took the assessments. The most recent available social studies results are from the 2017-18 school year and are also suppressed, and that testing program has since undergone changes that make direct comparison unreliable. Because proficiency rates are not reported at this time, a parent evaluating academic performance here will need to rely on direct communication with the school about its internal measures and any other external assessments it uses.
The school is located in Memphis, a large city with a broad set of civic and cultural anchors including the Mississippi River, Tom Lee Park (which completed a major renovation in 2023), Shelby Farms Park, and institutions such as the National Civil Rights Museum, Graceland, and the Stax Museum. The Memphis Area Transit Authority provides public bus service, and the mayor appoints board members to MATA. Housing values in the school’s immediate ZIP code are well below both the Tennessee state median and the national median, and have declined over the past year. Rental costs are modest by national standards and have held steady.
Student support data such as chronic absenteeism and staffing ratios was not available, so a parent interested in class sizes or attendance patterns should follow up with the school. Given the upcoming transfer from the ASD to Memphis-Shelby County Schools, families should also inquire about how that transition will affect the school’s charter status, leadership, and curriculum beyond the upcoming school year. The school’s website is a reasonable first step for specifics on its program offerings, which were not included in the data.
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