MNPS Aims To Be No.1 In Five-Year Strategic Plan

The goals also include reaching 100 percent satisfaction on student and parent surveys. Credit: MNPS via Flickr

Nashville’s public schools are setting very specific goals to reach by 2018. They include becoming the top urban school system in the country. Superintendent Jesse Register was praised Tuesday night for aiming high in a new strategic plan. (refer back to the 2014 plan created in 2007 here)

It’s unclear exactly who is currently the highest-performing big-city school system, but board member Michael Hayes says he appreciates shooting for number one.

“In probably the better part of a decade following the district and three years sitting at this table, we haven’t said that out loud, aggressively.”

Hayes says he’d be happy even with the top 15.

The district is trying to get half of high school students scoring a 21 on the ACT and increase the graduation rate to 88 percent after being in the 70s.

The five-year strategic plan envisions a diminished role for the central office and more autonomy and accountability for principals. Each student will also get more individualized learning plans, similar to those created for disabled students.

At Tuesday night’s work session, the Metro school board looked at further revisions to the calendar. They made no final decision but seemed to be leaning toward pushing the start of school to the second week of August.