Twenty-one Metro Nashville schools, as well as the district itself, are on the state’s list of low performers. The announcement was made Friday afternoon by the Tennessee Department of Education.
State officials said they are going to put $10 million into the state’s failing schools, and there will also be $20 million available through the federal government.
Meanwhile, Metro Schools superintendent Shawn Joseph stressed the importance of putting more resources into tailoring instruction to student needs. He also called for more community involvement.
The designation was based on three years of data, but last school year’s TNReady scores were not considered, because of a state law passed in the wake of technical issues with the test.
Each of the 21 schools designated as “priority” status was either in the bottom five percent from 2015 to 2017 or had a graduation rate of less than 67 percent last school year.
“This tells us that thousands of Metro students are not getting the education they deserve, particularly low-income students and students of color,” Mayor David Briley said in a statement. “This is unacceptable.”
On the other hand, 22 Metro Nashville schools were named “reward” schools for showing improvement in student achievement.
Priority schools in MNPS:
- Alex Green Elementary School
- Amqui Elementary School
- Antioch Middle School
- Bellshire Elementary School
- Caldwell Elementary School (Now Ida B. Wells Elementary School)
- Cumberland Elementary School
- Gra-Mar Middle School
- Haynes Middle School
- Jere Baxter Middle School
- Joelton Middle School
- Madison Middle School
- Maplewood High School
- McMurray Middle School
- Moses McKissack Middle School
- Robert E. Lilliard Elementary School
- Rosebank Elementary School
- The Cohn Learning Center
- Tom Joy Elementary School
- Warner Elementary School
- Whites Creek High School
- Wright Middle School