Category Archives: MNPS

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Learning Through Food

Students at one Nashville high school are learning about business management and cooking by operating a food truck, NewsChannel5 reports:

McGavock High School students are getting hands-on experience in both culinary arts and business management through their food truck program called Raider Bites.

The program, which launched in recent months, teaches students everything from cooking and food preparation to financial management and customer service. Matthew Long, a student who serves as sous chef of the food truck, said the experience has prepared him for college and beyond.

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Tennessee Republicans and DEI

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2026 Nashville “Teacherpreneurs” Announced

A media release from the Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) announces the 2026 class of Nashville Teacherpreneurs and explains more about the program:

The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) announced the latest cohort of the Teacherpreneur program, marking its fifth year and continuing its partnership with founding supporter Amazon. Since 2021, the Teacherpreneur program has supported over 40 educators to develop their innovative solutions for removing barriers to student success, with winners receiving cash prizes and access to seed funding for implementation.

Some of the issues being considered by cohort members include creating employment certification pathways for multilingual students, increasing resources for family engagement programs, building support for first year teachers, and facilitating stronger connections to magnet school opportunities. The cohort experience will culminate in a pitch event in March 2026, where educators will present their ideas to a panel of community judges for a chance to win a share of $25,000, as well as funding to support the implementation of their ideas. The fifth Teacherpreneur cohort includes:

  • Courtney Antonello, H.G. Hill Middle School
  • Ashley Bolan, Hunters Lane High School
  • Mary Jo Cramb, Academy at Old Cockrill
  • Nakia Edwards, Oliver Middle School
  • Katie Fitzpatrick, Hume Fogg Magnet High School
  • Molly Goss, Cane Ridge High School
  • Heather Hall, East Nashville Magnet High School
  • Leigh Ann Harbort, Harris Hillman School
  • Madison Reeb, Valor College Prep
  • Likisha Rhodes, Cane Ridge High School
  • Louisa Saylor, Goodlettsville Elementary School
  • Debbie West, Waverly-Belmont Elementary School
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On Acting and School Administration

Nashville education blogger TC Weber talks about what passes for leadership in school system central offices:

Most district administrators began their journey as classroom teachers. They know kids. They know learning. They know what works and what absolutely does not. Deep down—buried under layers of jargon, compliance documents, and motivational posters—they recognize the absurdity of much of what they’re pushing.

Nobody who has spent more than 10 minutes with actual children believes that forcing every kid to be on the same page at the same time in the same way is a kid-centered practice. It’s not even an adult-centered practice. It’s a bureaucrat-centered practice.

No one with chalk dust buried in their bloodstream believes loading down a teacher with mandates, trainings, videos, forms, surveys, dashboards, rubrics, walk-throughs, and “fidelity checks” is a recipe for success. It’s a recipe for burnout, and we’ve watched that soufflé collapse again and again.

Go ahead, read it all>

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Tennessee Parents Sue Over Private School Coupon Scheme

Killing Public Schools in Tennessee

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EdCo Teacher Spotlight: November

The latest Educators’ Cooperative newsletter includes a teacher spotlight:

Meet Cohort 3 EdCo Member Natalie Elliott, a cross-sector and interdisciplinary collaboration all-star! This year, she used our “EdCo in the Classroom” Member Services, to enrich her Gifted and Talented (GATE) classroom at Waverly-Belmont Elementary.
As part of their “Physics of Toys” unit, Natalie requested an EdCo Exchange collaboration with Built Technologies engineer (and EdCo Board Member) Thomas Schlegel. He visited her 5th graders for a career talk, case study, and to help Natalie with her teacher-led project: an in-class toy design activity.Natalie knew exactly what her students would want to talk about (Labubus) and exactly what they would need to successfully design toys (small groups, lots of engagement, and many chances to debrief with their peers).In classic EdCo fashion, Natalie even extended the learning beyond her own classroom and invited another teacher’s class to join the talk and plan their own toy designs for the project ahead alongside her students.

READ MORE>

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Tough Ride

WSMV-TV Nashville reports that a Metro Nashville Schools bus driver was struck by an elementary school student:

A driver was injured Monday morning after being struck by an elementary student while on a school bus.

Metro Nashville Public Schools confirmed a Waverly-Belmont Elementary School student struck the driver on a general education bus Monday morning, “causing minor injuries.”

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Concerning Numbers

Education blogger TC Weber looks at the stagnant graduation rate in Metro Nashville Schools – and a concerning decline:

A recent TDOE report shows MNPS recording its second-highest graduation rate ever. Several historically disadvantaged groups—economically disadvantaged students, Black students, and students with disabilities—posted their highest rates on record.

Sounds impressive.

Until you look at the details.

The district’s overall graduation rate: 83%.

Hispanic students? Their rate dropped 6.1 percentage points in the 2024–25 school year, landing at 73.2%.

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But Is Every Child Valued?

Nashville education blogger TC Weber offers a critique of MNPS’s “Every Child Known” slogan in light of the district’s policies and actions.

“Every child known” may actually be more accurate than “every child valued.”

That shift in wording—just one verb—changes everything.

Because when a district knows a child is in danger, knows their history, knows their struggles, knows the warning signs… and still fails them, what does that tell us about the hierarchy of value? What does that tell families? What does it tell students?

READ MORE>

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A Warning for Tennessee from Arizona

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Troubling Numbers

A Nashville education blogger raises the alarm over the MNPS graduation rate:

This week, the Tennessee Department of Education released graduation rates for public schools. The statewide number was a record-breaking 92.3%, up from 92.1% the previous year. A total of 69,124 students graduated, nearly 1,900 more than the year before.

Those numbers sound great—unless you live in Nashville.

For schools under the MNPS banner, the results were, to put it mildly, atrocious. The district’s graduation rate came in at 83.6%—a full percentage point behind Memphis.

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Group Connected to Gov. Lee Helps Push Full Privatization of Schools

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Relationships, Data, and MNPS

Nashville education blogger TC Weber takes a look at “Every Child Known.”

 Relationships drive effort and loyalty. But relationships can’t be graphed on a data dashboard or condensed into a performance metric, and that’s where the system breaks down.

The modern education machine loves data points—graduation rates, proficiency scores, chronic absenteeism percentages. What it doesn’t love are messy, unquantifiable things like trust, rapport, and empathy.

It also loves micromanagement, often as much as it loves its spreadsheets.

This year MNPS doubled down on its scripted lesson plans, demanding that every class at every grade level in every school be on the same page, every single day. Besides flying in the face of nearly every best practice ever written, it strips teachers of the flexibility—and time—needed to form authentic connections with their students.

The best teachers have always known the importance of relationships. They’ve built them instinctively, often despite the system rather than because of it.

MORE>

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An End to Public Education in Tennessee

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Nashville Teachers: Teacherpreneur Apps Close Nov. 12

The Nashville Public Education Foundation’s (NPEF) Teacherpreneur applications close soon – from an email:

Teacherpreneur is a professional learning experience for Nashville public school educators designed to harness teacher expertise and innovation. Teacherpreneurs participate in 5 sessions over January and February to build out ideas that help advance positive outcomes for students. 

Teacherpreneurs will identify an issue they want to address, research root causes of the issue, learn about change management theory, and use design thinking strategies to create solutions that help students thrive. In March, Teacherpreneurs will pitch their ideas for a chance to win cash prizes and seed funding to pilot their idea.

Application information

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