Balmoral/Ridgeway Elementary vs Memphis STEM Academy

Balmoral/Ridgeway Elementary and Memphis STEM Academy sit at the very top of Tennessee's elementary school rankings — but the gap between them is tighter than the numbers first suggest. Memphis STEM Academy ranks #7 of 1,785 schools statewide and holds a 9.5/10 overall rating, while Balmoral/Ridgeway Elementary ranks #12 of 1,785 with a 9.4/10 overall rating. Both schools clear elite thresholds, but Memphis STEM Academy's five-rank state advantage signals a small but real edge in composite performance.

The academic and growth scores tell a more nuanced story. Balmoral/Ridgeway Elementary outscores Memphis STEM Academy in raw academic performance — 9.2/10 versus 8.8/10 — meaning its students are testing at a higher absolute level. Memphis STEM Academy flips that dynamic on growth: it scores 9.9/10 versus Balmoral/Ridgeway Elementary's 9.3/10, a 0.6-point gap indicating students at the charter school are making faster year-over-year gains relative to academic expectations. Families who weight trajectory and improvement over current achievement levels will read that growth delta differently than those focused on absolute test benchmarks.

Balmoral/Ridgeway Elementary enrolls 271 students compared to Memphis STEM Academy's 243, and its student-teacher ratio of 12.3:1 is tighter than Memphis STEM Academy's 13.5:1. That difference translates to roughly one additional student per classroom on average at Memphis STEM Academy — meaningful at the elementary level where individual attention shapes early literacy and numeracy outcomes. Neither school is large by any measure; both maintain class sizes well below typical urban elementary norms.

The two schools differ in structure and entry point. Balmoral/Ridgeway Elementary is a regular public school serving grades KG–05, while Memphis STEM Academy is a charter school that starts at PreK, giving families the option of a structured academic environment one year earlier. The 11.9 miles separating the two campuses means the choice is genuinely geographic as well as academic for many Memphis families.