Summary
Memphis Academy of Science Engineering Middle/High (MASE) is a combined middle and high school at 1266 Poplar Ave in Memphis, TN, serving 667 students in grades 6–12 as part of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Within a district ranked near the bottom of Tennessee (137th of 141 districts), MASE sits in the middle of the pack relative to nearby schools but has shown meaningful recent improvement. In 2025–2026, MASE ranked 290th out of 400 Tennessee high schools (28th percentile, 1 star), a notable jump from 342nd (12th percentile) the previous year.
The school's standout strength is its graduation rate: 96.9% in 2024–2025, well above the district's 84.1% and the state's 90.5%, with a dropout rate of just 3.1% compared to the district's 14.4%. Test proficiency, however, remains low overall. All-grades math proficiency was 15.5% and ELA was 18.3%, both far below state averages. Yet the picture is not uniformly discouraging. MASE outperforms its district in several high-school subjects including English I, English II, Algebra II, Biology I, and U.S. History, and the school jumped notably in statewide rank thanks to broad year-over-year improvement across end-of-course exams. Encouragingly, subgroup results are strong: MASE ranks at the 68th percentile for low-income students, the 66th percentile for special education students, and the 53rd percentile for African American students compared to similar schools statewide.
The biggest red flag is chronic absenteeism. In 2024–2025, 58.0% of MASE students were chronically absent, nearly double the district rate (30.2%) and more than triple the state rate (18.3%). The comparison with Crosstown High School, just 0.73 miles away with a similar student population, is striking: both schools graduate nearly all their students (96.9% vs. 97.5%), but Crosstown's chronic absenteeism is 18.2% and its English II proficiency is 65.9% compared to MASE's 42.1%. MASE spends a relatively high $17,299 per student with small class sizes, which makes the attendance and proficiency challenges more notable. For parents, MASE offers a supportive path to graduation and improving test scores, but chronic absenteeism and weak middle-school academic performance, especially in 8th grade ELA (9.0% proficient), remain serious concerns.
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