By Chao Deng | Photography by Mike Belleme for WSJ

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On a weekday morning this summer, Amy Cox instructed a small group of third-graders to rub their palms together, then clap out syllables for the words "apple," "turtle" and "table."

The children had encountered the "-le" syllable the past school year, but were repeating the lesson to make sure they grasped it. They were preparing to read a story that featured similar words.

"You're going to hear that syllable make an 'uhl' sound," Cox explained. "Get your hands warmed up — we're going to clap the syllables, ready?" The class then chanted the next word on the screen in front of them: "Peo-ple!"

American children by many measures are worse at reading and math than they were a decade ago. The most recent eighth-grade reading scores on a key national assessment hit their lowest point since 1990; grade four scored at pre-2003 levels. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the declines, and while there have been some signs of recovery, many students still haven't bounced back.

As schools across the nation search for remedies, one of the most closely watched efforts is playing out in Tennessee. The state's schools — once among the U.S.'s worst-performing — have made gains with intensive tutoring, mandatory summer school for struggling pupils and a back-to-basics approach that emphasizes phonics.

From 2022 to 2025, Tennessee ranked second out of 38 states in math improvement and fourth out of 35 states in reading gains, according to the Education Scorecard, an analysis of national test scores by Harvard and Stanford universities. The state's most recent scores on a key national test placed it 17th out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., and first in the South, up from near the bottom in 2009, according to a ranking by the University of Oklahoma.

Much of the work has revolved around early literacy and carefully tracking schools' and students' progress. "It isn't just one thing," says Tennessee education commissioner Lizzette Reynolds. "It's really hard work."

'Keep going'

In Knox County, about half of the school district's 91 K-12 schools hosted four-week learning camp programs this summer. Most attendees are elementary school children, some required to be there. The classrooms are often about a dozen kids, led by teachers focused on breaking down reading, writing and math. About three times as many teachers apply for these roles as there are spots available.

On a recent afternoon at Ball Camp Elementary School, Chelsie McClellan, who teaches fourth grade during the school year, was guiding a few third-graders through a story about a Wyoming man who worked on a steam engine in 1870. The class read one passage three times, first in a chorus with McClellan's voice ringing loudly, then in a whisper without her, and lastly, in a normal voice to their desk partners.

McClellan walked around to each child, crouching down to help. When Alejandro Castillo, 9, got stuck on a sentence containing "Transcontinental Railroad," she helped him sound it out piece by piece.

"Trans... Con... Ti... Nen... Tal," she coached. "Keep going — last little bit," she said, as the boy echoed her pronunciation.

Later, McClellan asked the class to think about how the story connected to their own lives. She compared the steam from the train engine to steam they might see in their own kitchens at home.

"When you're making connections, that means you're thinking," McClellan said. "And if you're thinking about it, that means you're comprehending."

American schools have wrestled with learning loss for the better part of a decade and no one has found a panacea. Stalling of student progress in K-12 math and reading coincided with less emphasis on standardized tests and a rise in social-media use.

Other states are trying early literacy reforms, but not all have matched Tennessee's results. Researchers believe the secret lies in the components of a state's plan and how they are implemented. Mississippi, which began emphasizing phonics-based literacy instruction over a decade ago, has since made major academic strides, for example. Researchers say the key ingredients likely included investing in literacy coaches, holding schools and districts accountable, and holding back struggling students at the end of third grade.

Tennessee policymakers required districts to adopt high-quality instructional materials and trained teachers on how to implement evidence-based reading in classrooms. A 2021 state law required third-graders scoring just below reading proficiency to show "adequate growth" at the end of summer camps to advance to fourth grade.

Between 2021 and 2025, about one in four third-graders participated in summer camp, tutoring or both programs, to advance to fourth grade. Most of the roughly 21,000 third-graders who attended summer classes last year were required to by the state. About 530 third-graders were held back in 2025, down from about 650 in 2024 and nearly 900 in 2023.

'Not sugarcoating it'

Knox County was among the bottom 5% of school districts in Tennessee based on multiple academic indicators back in 2021. This year, the county is marking the fifth consecutive year of academic growth. Nearly 45% of students met or exceeded grade-level expectations in reading on a key state test, up from about 33% in the 2020-2021 school year, while 45% met or exceeded grade-level expectations in math, up from 31%.

District administrators have tried to streamline instruction across grades and subjects. Instead of referring to the "bossy r" in words like "park" for example, teachers are supposed to refer to it as the "r-controlled vowel" and to explain how it dominates or "controls" the preceding vowel to create a brand new sound.

"We're not sugarcoating it because they're children," said Christine Pope, an academic support coordinator in Knox county.

Elementary school children take diagnostic tests for phonics and spelling at the start of camp and again toward the end. Parents and children are encouraged to track progress.

This past Father's Day, Javier Flint noticed his son Elijah was able to read the text on greeting cards when they were at a shop together. He has also noticed his son picking up on the English subtitles on animé TV shows.

The 9-year-old recently completed his second year of summer camp. "It was voluntary but [the district] suggested it," said his father. Elijah's teachers had noticed he was reading slowly and helped diagnose him with dyslexia last fall, Flint said.

On his last day at camp, Elijah, dressed in a Star Wars T-shirt, beamed with confidence. He said he was planning to tackle a dozen books in the Dog Man series and was also now reading to his younger brother at home.

"I'm getting really good," he said.

Write to Chao Deng at chao.deng@wsj.com