School District Guide | Collierville Schools: What Relocating Families Need to Know
When families relocating to the Memphis metro start researching school districts, Collierville comes up fast. That is not an accident. The district has built a track record that stands on its own, and the data behind it is worth understanding before you make a decision about where to buy.
I have lived in this area for 25 years. I have watched Collierville grow, watched the school system evolve after it separated from Shelby County Schools in 2014, and worked with dozens of relocating families who made the Collierville decision specifically because of the schools. Here is what they needed to know before they started writing offers.
The District at a Glance
Collierville Schools is a municipal school district serving Collierville, Tennessee in Shelby County. For the 2025-2026 school year, the district serves approximately 9,367 students across 10 public schools, including five elementary schools, two middle schools, one high school, and a virtual academy option.
The district’s average testing ranking is in the top 1% of public schools in Tennessee, with math proficiency running at approximately 61% compared to the state average of 34%, and reading proficiency at approximately 64% compared to the state average of 37%.
Those numbers matter because they are not averages across a large, mixed-performance district. Collierville Schools is a focused municipal system where performance is consistently high across the board, not driven by a single standout school pulling up the average.
Elementary Schools
The district operates five elementary schools:
Bailey Station Elementary School — One of the top-ranked elementaries in the district, serving students in the northern and western areas of Collierville.
Collierville Elementary School — Located near the historic town center, one of the district’s longer-established campuses.
Crosswind Elementary School — Consistently ranked among the top elementary schools in the district and one of the highest-rated in Southwest Tennessee.
Schilling Farms Elementary School — Serves the Schilling Farms development area on the west side of Collierville.
Sycamore Elementary School — Serves families in the southern corridor of Collierville.
Tara Oaks Elementary School — Another top-ranked elementary in the district, located in the eastern portion of the city.
School assignment at the elementary level is boundary-based. Your assigned school is determined by your home address. Collierville Schools provides a Zone Locator on their website where you can enter any address and confirm which schools serve that location before you purchase a home.
Middle Schools
The district operates two middle schools serving grades 6 through 8:
Collierville Middle School — Located on Quinn Road, this campus serves families in the central and eastern portions of Collierville.
West Collierville Middle School — Located on Byhalia Road, serving the western and northern corridors. Formerly known as Schilling Farms Middle School, it opened in 2018 and feeds directly from Bailey Station and Schilling Farms Elementary.
Middle school assignment follows the same boundary logic as elementary. Families should use the Zone Locator to confirm which middle school comes with any home they are considering.
Collierville High School
There is one public high school in the district, and it carries real weight in the rankings.
Collierville High School serves approximately 2,998 students in grades 9 through 12. Niche ranks it as the number one public high school in the Memphis metro area for 2026. U.S. News places it among the top 25 high schools in Tennessee statewide. The school is notably the only public high school in Tennessee offered a charter from the Cum Laude Society, a recognition of academic distinction typically reserved for elite independent schools.
The high school offers Advanced Placement coursework, a well-established robotics program (Dragon Robotics, team 5002), and was named a 2026 District of Distinction in the STEM and Career Pathways category through the district’s aviation program. The NASA TechRise Student Challenge selected the West Collierville Middle School 8th grade team as one of 60 teams nationally in the 2025-2026 competition — which signals the kind of STEM pipeline being built at the middle school level that feeds into the high school.
What the Separation from Shelby County Schools Means
In 2014, Collierville, along with Germantown, Bartlett, Arlington, Lakeland, and Millington, separated from the merged Shelby County Schools district and formed its own municipal school district. This is a critical piece of context for relocating families.
Before 2014, all of these communities were served by the merged Memphis-Shelby County district. The formation of the municipal districts allowed these communities to fund, govern, and operate their schools independently. Collierville Schools has operated as its own district for over a decade now, and the performance trajectory since separation has been consistently strong.
Families moving from other states sometimes assume that a community’s public schools are run by the county. In Collierville, that is not the case. Where your home sits within the city limits determines which district serves your children, and in Collierville’s case, that distinction works strongly in your favor.
How School Assignment Affects the Home Search
This is where school research and home buying intersect in ways that matter.
Not all addresses in the 38017 zip code feed into Collierville Schools. Zip code boundaries and school district boundaries are not the same thing. There are properties along the edges of Collierville’s city limits that may carry a Collierville zip code but fall within Shelby County Schools boundaries.
Before writing an offer on any home with Collierville Schools as a factor in your decision, confirm the school assignment using the district’s Zone Locator tool at colliervilleschools.org. This takes about two minutes and removes any ambiguity.
At the elementary level, school assignment also varies by neighborhood within the district. Families with a preference for a specific elementary school should work backward from that preference — confirm which streets fall within that school’s boundary before narrowing the home search.
Private School Options in Collierville
Families who want to keep private school on the table will find options in the area. Several established private and faith-based schools serve families in Collierville and the surrounding corridor, though I recommend verifying current enrollment, grade configuration, and availability directly with any school you are considering. Private school landscapes can shift, and I do not want to present a roster as current when offerings change year to year.
The Bottom Line for Relocating Families
Collierville Schools is one of the strongest municipal districts in West Tennessee. The district is self-governing, consistently high-performing, and has a high school that competes with the best in the state. For families where school quality is the primary driver of the home search, Collierville belongs at the top of the list.
The practical side of that decision is making sure the specific home you are buying is zoned for the specific schools you are choosing. I help families work through that process every week. If you are relocating to the Memphis metro and Collierville is on your list, let’s talk about how to build the search around the schools and the neighborhoods that match where you want to be.
Call or text me at (901) 569-8486, or visit tonigreen.crye-leike.com to start the conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are all homes with a Collierville zip code zoned for Collierville Schools? No. Zip code boundaries and school district boundaries are different lines. Some addresses with a 38017 zip code fall within Shelby County Schools boundaries rather than Collierville Schools. The only way to confirm which district serves a specific address is to use the Collierville Schools Zone Locator at colliervilleschools.org or contact the district directly.
How do I find out which elementary school my child would attend in Collierville? Collierville Schools uses a Zone Locator tool on their website. You enter the home’s address and it identifies the assigned elementary, middle, and high school for that location. Families shopping for homes should use this before making an offer if school assignment is a factor in their decision.
When did Collierville form its own school district? Collierville Schools separated from Shelby County Schools in 2014 as part of a broader movement among Shelby County municipalities to form their own independent municipal school districts. The district has been operating independently for over a decade.
How does Collierville High School rank compared to other schools in Tennessee? Collierville High School ranks among the top 25 high schools in Tennessee according to U.S. News and is ranked number one among Memphis area public high schools by Niche for 2026. It is the only public high school in Tennessee offered a charter from the Cum Laude Society.
Does Collierville Schools have STEM programs? The district has a strong STEM emphasis at multiple levels. Collierville Schools was named a 2026 District of Distinction in the STEM and Career Pathways category, driven in part by an aviation program. Collierville High School has an established robotics team, and a West Collierville Middle School team was selected for the NASA TechRise Student Challenge in 2025-2026.
What is the student-to-teacher ratio in Collierville Schools? The district’s overall student-to-teacher ratio is approximately 15:1, which is in line with the Tennessee state average. Collierville High School’s ratio is closer to 19:1 given the larger student population at the single high school campus.
Can I request a school outside my assigned boundary in Collierville? Collierville Schools is a boundary-based system, and school assignment is tied to your home address. Families interested in a specific school outside their assigned boundary should contact the district directly to ask about any available transfer or choice options, as policies and available capacity can change year to year.