Metro Schools Get a ‘C,’ Achievement Gap a Concern

A citizens’ report card issued (today/yesterday) graded Metro Schools’ performance last year at a ‘C,’ down slightly from the last grading period.

The report applauded high schools for significantly improving graduation rates which rose from 60 to 68-percent in just one year. But the citizens’ panel behind the assessment also warned of a growing achievement gap between white and black students. They point to the disproportionate number of suspensions of African-American students and their considerably lower math proficiency at the high school level.

Schools director Pedro Garcia says most of the recommendations made by the report are issues that school officials are working to fix. Garcia, who’s been criticized for not paying more attention to the widening achievement gap, says the issue cannot fully be resolved in schools.

“We need to realize the achievement gap across this country is not solely a school district’s issue, but it’s a community issue, and one that all of us in Nashville as well as well as in every community need to work together to make this happen.

For yet another year, the citizens’ panel reports that Metro Schools aren’t adequately funded. They also contend that some of their recommended improvements could be made without any further funding.

Panel chair Avi Poster also gave a harsh warning to schools officials and the teachers’ union. He said both should (quote) ‘put their guns at the door,’ and work together to address the district’s challenges.

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Poster said: “We urge both MNEA (Metro Nashville Education Association) and our district leadership to put their guns at the door, to introspectively explore how they can collectively collaborate and take actions steps to bolster a relationship that heretofore has struggled.”

Union President Jamye Merritt says the teachers want to be respected. She agrees that the school board and the teacher’s union both want to work together, but she says that’s not happening.

“I don’t see it happening. We keep coming to the table. We keep throwing out the olive branch, but they keep slapping it back.”

Merritt says that ‘olive branch’ can be seen in programs that that the MNEA wants to expand but that the school board wishes to cut. Merritt says the teacher mentor program PALS was well-liked by the union but is on the chopping block at budget time.