What to teach in Tennessee

Courses that cover the core subjects

Tennessee names no subjects, so nothing here is required of you. This is the sequence this site teaches, offered as a default rather than an obligation.

Mathematics

English

Science

Social studies

Each is planned as a 36-week year of about 180 sessions, five a week — the year 20 of the 21 course guides set out explicitly. How long a session runs is yours to set.

Does this meet the hours?

Independent home school: at least 4 hours per day for 180 days per year. Umbrella schools set their own requirements.

Each course here plans a 36-week year of about 180 sessions, five a week — the year 20 of the 21 course guides set out explicitly. The length of a session is left to you, because a Grade 6 session and a Grade 12 one are not the same thing.

Four such courses run across the same 180-session year, so a four-course year meets Tennessee's 180 days without any arithmetic: the days are the calendar, not a total to accumulate.

The four high school years

Tennessee reviews the work each year, so the high school record matters twice: once for the annual assessment and again for whoever reads the transcript afterwards. A full sequence of these courses looks like this.

Four subjects across four years is 16 full-year courses. Credits, grades and the diploma itself are Tennessee's business, not this site's — what Tennessee says about diplomas and transcripts.

Evidence for the annual review

Tennessee asks for testing or evaluation, so the year has to leave a paper trail. These courses produce four things that serve as evidence, without any extra work:

• Printable lessons. Every lesson has a print view holding the full teaching text, worked examples and practice — dated pages for a portfolio.
• Exams with answer keys and marking criteria. Each course has a midterm, a final and a sample exam, each question carrying response criteria an evaluator can read.
• A 36-week pacing table. The parent guide for each course lists the week-by-week assignments, which is the planning document most evaluators ask to see.
• Exit tickets and checkpoints. Short written responses through each lesson, showing work over time rather than one test score.

Independent home school students in grades 5, 7 and 9 must test. Option 1: a parent-chosen nationally normed standardized test with English language arts and math results, proctored by someone not related to the child, scored/recorded by the test developer, at parent's cost (allowed since HB 1729, May 2026). Option 2: the state-board-approved secure tests given to public school students (currently TCAP, grades 5 and 7; the grade 9 end-of-course exam cannot be used), given free at the public school. No passing score required; HB 1729 repealed the old remediation/forced-enrollment provisions tied to low scores. Results go to the parent, the director of schools and the State Board of Education. Umbrella schools and accredited online schools handle their own testing.