New report finds Nashville among the nation's leaders in pandemic recovery

Ida B. Wells Elementary School formed in 2018 with the consolidation of two smaller schools in a rapidly gentrifying section of East Nashville.Its short history has seen both challenges and success.The state placed Ida B. Wells on the Priority list of low performing schools in the 2021/2022 school year. Principal Dr. Dexter Adams says staff turned that around through deliberate steps to fundamentally change how the school teaches its students.“We became the first AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) elementary school in the district which established a college going culture from day one with students.  We focused on high quality instruction and curriculum that pushed our students to exceed and excel,” said Adams. “To enhance what is happening at our school each day to support student academic growth we literally expanded the time we spend with students. We are part of the scholar’s portfolio which includes an extra month with students each summer, engaging in activities on Saturdays and high dosage tutoring through Accelerating Scholars.”Today the state recognizes Ida B. Wells as a Reward school that’s showing strong growth and achievement and Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) believes its story is a key part of a districtwide turnaround that’s now getting national attention.A new report produced by Harvard and Stanford Universities known as the Education Recovery Scorecard, credits MNPS for surpassing national trends for pandemic recovery.The research found MNPS ranked third among the top 100 districts in math growth from 2022 to 2023 and the district is ranked sixth among the top 100 districts in reading (English language arts) growth during that same period. The district was one of just two large urban school districts to rank in the top ten for both subjects.“Our hope is that this is a credit to every teacher, every administrator, every support staffer…has been doing the community’s most important work and I think today is a reflection of why it mattered to do that important work under difficult circumstances,” said Mayor Freddie O’Connell. “This has been a team effort, making sure that teachers, support staff, school leaders were all in the buildings, bringing students and families in and we see you, we support you, and we celebrate you.”Mayor O’Connell joined district leader at Ida B. Wells Tuesday morning to mark the recognition MNPS is receiving through the Education Recovery Scorecard.The report listed several district strategies with playing a valuable role in the pandemic recovery including adopting the Wit & Wisdom curriculum for reading and STEM Scopes and Open Up for math, providing wraparound support including free meals for students, high-dosage tutoring programs, and its investments of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) funding.“This recognition underscores not only the strategies we’ve designed but also the extremely impressive work so many people across the district have done to implement those plans and ensure our students are getting what they need both in and out of the classroom,” said Director of Schools Dr. Adrienne Battle. “I’m so proud of our MNPS educators, support staff, parents, community partners, and students for putting in the work every day to make these results possible. And they haven’t slowed down.”

Recovery nationwide but gaps remain

Nashville’s improvements are part of a nationwide trend of historic gains according to the report. One state (Alabama) returned to pre-pandemic achievement levels in math and three states (Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi) returned to 2019 levels in reading.The report placed Tennessee with the third most improvement in math and the sixth most in reading.Despite those positive trends, the report still identified several concerns for pandemic recovery.Students in seventeen states remain more than a third of a grade level behind 2019 levels in math and 14 states remain that far behind in reading.  Additionally, achievement gaps between high-and-low poverty districts that widened during the pandemic have not closed.“We should thank teachers and principals and superintendents for what they’ve done for American schoolchildren in the last year; their efforts have led to strikingly large improvements in children’s learning.  But we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the recovery has been uneven and we have a long way to go. Academic performance remains lower and more unequal than in 2019 in all but the wealthiest communities in America,” said Stanford Professor of Poverty and Inequality Sean Reardon.Dr. Battle said closing achievement gaps for students continues to be a priority for MNPS.She said the district has utilized ESSER investments to create and move forward strategies that are tailored to close gaps for specific student groups, like English language learners or economically disadvantaged students.“We’re fortunate in Metro Nashville Public Schools that with both achievement and growth we’ve seen all of our student groups increase, and so we have the time and moment now with acceleration to continue to close those achievement gaps for all of our students as we move forward,” said Dr. Battle.