Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education lauds progress under Director Battle’s leadership

Dr. Adrienne Battle (Photo by Metro Nashville Public Schools)

Members of the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education discussed the district’s progress in efforts to improve student performance under Director Dr. Adrienne Battle’s leadership at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

According to board member Berthena Nabaa-McKinney, who provided an overview of recent feedback, the board has entered the fourth quarter of its director evaluation process, which comes before a summative evaluation with data from the Tennessee Department of Education in the fall. Nabaa-McKinney said under Battle’s leadership, the district has gained national recognition for its literacy programming, such as its Enriching Scholars program. She added that the district has also made significant progress in recent efforts to improve student performance in math.

Berthena Nabaa-McKinney (Photo by Metro Nashville Public Schools)

“We’ve seen strides in closing the achievement gap among subgroup populations, with the largest being among African-American students,” she added. “And we’ve also seen a commitment to continuous improvement.”

Nabaa-McKinney also highlighted a decrease in chronic absenteeism under Battle’s leadership, which has been helped by increased investments in socio-emotional learning (SEL) supports for students.

“When I first came into the district a couple years ago, that was one of our focuses, especially coming out of the pandemic,” she said. “As a result of reducing chronic absenteeism, we have been able to improve in ‘satisfactory,’ ‘perfect,’ and ‘overall’ attendance rates.”

In addition, Nabaa-McKinney noted that the district’s use of “classroom associates” has resulted in a “record increase in filled substitute opportunities from 27 percent to 52 percent.” She said the board hopes to provide continued support to this initiative launched under Battle’s leadership, in addition to continuing investments in literacy and SEL centered programming.

“There was a lot of doubt about whether that program could work, and we’re seeing the return on that investment, and how that has really been able to work and be successful across our district, to continue classrooms without disruption,” she said.

Moving forward, Nabaa-McKinney said the board plans to build on the progress made under Battle’s tenure through investments in professional development for instructors, high quality instructional materials and academic intervention support services for students, among other strategies.

“We want to continue to support Battle to continue to provide these seamless programs that we see are having a strong impact for students and student outcomes, and really pushing the needle across our district,” she said.